20% of fee-for-service Medicare patients are readmitted within 30 days of discharge, and 34% return to the hospital within 90 days. Reasons cited most often are unclear discharge directions, especially for medications, and lack of follow up communication with caregivers, problems home care is uniquely positioned to mitigate. A new study of ways home care can reduce hospital readmissions is underway with results expected in time for this year’s NAHC Annual Meeting. Delta Health Technologies will underwrite the study, which will be conducted by Fazzi Associates.
Are Medicare certified home health providers taking too big a risk by answering rate cuts with more and longer episodes? A leading research firm reports CMS, MedPAC and Congress are watching closely as total Medicare reimbursements for home health services continue to grow despite annually lower payment rates.
According to CMS data, the number of Medicare certified home health care agencies now exceeds 11,000. New research into that data by Healthcare Market Resources has brought to light a new and better way of understanding the general health of the Medicare home health care industry in an era of healthcare reform. It also helps to explain why the industry’s software vendors seem to be scratching their heads over the phenomenon of growing numbers of agencies but flat sales.
Located an hour’s drive from Joplin, HEALTHCAREfirst has a number of employees with friends and family affected by this month’s record-breaking tornado. In one day, they collected over $6,000 for a relief agency and the company added $5,000. “Devastation from the tornado is unimaginable,” said company president Bobby Robertson.
