27
Oct
Netsmart Broadens LTPAC Reach With HealthMEDX Acquisition

 

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By Tim Rowan, Editor & Publisher Home Care Technology Report

Overland Park, Kansas — October 27, 2016 — Continuing to broaden its scope across the continuum of care, Netsmart announced on Thursday the acquisition of HealthMEDX®, a Missouri-based developer of electronic medical record (EMR) solutions for long-term and post-acute care including: continuing care retirement communities, assisted living, independent living, skilled nursing and home care providers.

The addition of long-term care (LTC) capabilities positions Netsmart as perhaps the largest supplier of community care technology solutions serving providers in the post-acute and human services segments of healthcare. (See “Allscripts Reinvests in Home Care,” HCTR, 3/30/16)

Netsmart EVP Kevin Scalia told us that his CEO and executive team take a long view of post-acute care that anticipates the day when silos are torn down between SNF, ALF, patient home, and hospice locations of care. “This is what was behind the acquisition of Allscripts Home Care by us, a behavioral health software company,” he said, “and it is the same reason we would acquire a LTC software provider. The unspoken implication was that today’s announcement might not be Netsmart’s last. [Details are provided about the projected growth of post-acute care populations and their needs. Netsmart CEO Mike Valentine provides extensive information about further projected growth of Netsmart to service the growing LTC market.  Details about HealthMEDX’s many service lines are also provided.]

A company statement explained that there is a growing demand for services in LTC and other sectors served by HealthMEDX. U.S. Census Bureau data indicates the population of those aged 65 and older will more than double by 2050 and comprise 20 percent of the U.S. population. Many of those served by LTC have multiple co-occurring health conditions that require coordinated, integrated care for improved outcomes.

“The acquisition of HealthMEDX is a major new building block on our journey to build a comprehensive platform to serve community-based providers,” said Netsmart CEO Mike Valentine. “We have the scale, experience and resources to make the investments today needed to position community-based providers for the value-based healthcare world. Managing the health of populations is impossible without tight integration between large health systems and the various community-based providers. Through our CareFabric® platform, we have made more than 1.1 million connections between care providers. We have established a provider bridge that enables care of the whole person throughout the care continuum. We extend a warm welcome to HealthMEDX clients and associates as they join the Netsmart family.”

Transitioning to the Netsmart client community, HealthMEDX customers can also leverage the CareFabric platform of clinical and business solutions, including interoperability, revenue cycle management, data analytics, care coordination and consumer engagement technologies, the news release stated.

Providers using an integrated technology framework for LTC, home care and behavioral health can improve outcomes, increase referrals for targeted care, and reduce costs. In an era of integrated, value-based care, this framework equips providers with the infrastructure and tools needed to lead the transformation of the healthcare system from one based on acute care and inpatient treatment to more effective and efficient community-based care models.

“Netsmart provides the scale and solutions to help providers evolve to the world of value-based care, the ‘new normal’ for all of healthcare, including LTC,” said Pamela Pure, CEO of HealthMEDX. Pure will join the senior leadership team at Netsmart. “In this exciting, dynamic time I look forward to a smooth transition and the new opportunities for growth and success for our clients and associates.”

About Netsmart
Netsmart is healthcare’s largest human services and integrated care technology provider. Netsmart technology platforms and expertise are integral to the delivery of outcomes-based services and care to more than 25 million persons nationwide.

Netsmart serves more than 500,000 users in more than 24,000 organizations across all 50 states. Netsmart client communities include behavioral health; addiction treatment; intellectual and developmental disabilities; child and family services; public health; home health, hospice and palliative care and private duty; long-term care and vital records.

Netsmart’s CareFabric suite, a framework of innovative clinical and business solutions and services, supports integrated, coordinated delivery of health services across the spectrum of care.

Netsmart’s HIT Value Model™ metric, a vendor-agnostic planning and measurement system, provides a path for human services organizations to evaluate where on the healthcare IT spectrum they should focus their efforts, the value associated with that strategic decision and a comparison with peer organizations nationwide.

Netsmart also supports the EveryDayMatters® Foundation, which was established for human services organizations to learn from each other and share their causes and stories.
everydaymatters.comeverydaymatters.com

ntst.com

©2016 by Rowan Consulting Associates, Inc., Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved. This article originally appeared in Tim Rowan’s Home Care Technology Report. homecaretechreport.com One copy may be printed for personal use; further reproduction by permission only. editor@homecaretechreport.com

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27
Oct
Joel, Billy & TD…Make Room for the Hurricane!

 

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by Michelle Boasten, humanitarian,  social entrepreneur, and founder of “You Can Care, Inc.”

Home Care Technology Report attended the Hurricane Marketing Enterprise Bootcamp event in Philadelphia last week.  Steve “The Hurricane” Weiss has created the most unusual home care event you will ever attend. Trained as a minister, he can only be described as a mash up of Joel Osteen, Billy Graham and megachurch pastor T.D. Jakes.

With that image in mind, now envision the congregation, home care operators committed to serve in the “mission fields” of seniors at home. At the beginning of the event each attendee has to take an oath to keep their priorities in order: patient first, staff second, finances last.[Boasten provides feedback on Weiss’s event (gathered from 3 home care agency owners attending the bootcamp) and offers an overview of how different segments of the healthcare at home industry– private pay outfits, skilled Medicare certified, and others–may react to the Bootcamp’s priorities.]

Keeping priorities in that order allows an agency to remember what is most important, taking care of patients. But you must also take care of your staff and, if you do these two things well, money will follow. You can also expect some word-of-mouth referrals to flow. Profits will occur but money alone should not be your greatest primary motivation.

Congregation says…
We interviewed three Home Care agency owners at the bootcamp. Cynthia Jean-Mary, A New Life Homecare, Suzanne Karp, Care at Home, and Paulette Chapman, Always Best Care, told us they are “ready to do what it takes” to serve seniors, even if it means what Weiss calls “Power Partnering” with hospitals and Home Health agencies. These agency owners expressed great satisfaction with the methods taught and are ready to implement them with support from the Hurricane Marketing Team.

While the skilled Medicare Certified side of Healthcare at Home may be feeling a bit fearful about their future, we learned that Private Pay providers are excited about 10,000 Baby Boomers turning 65 every day. They see this demographic change as an opportunity for business growth.

Certified Home Health is understandably focused on Medicare reimbursement rates. If you study CMS plans for value-based and bundled payments, plus other demonstration programs, it appears they are moving toward a future with a “one size fits all” solution to post-acute care. For this to work, silos will have to be torn down between home health, hospice, skilled nursing facilities, assisted living facilities, rehab hospitals and other post-acute care locales, and non-medical home care will have to join the effort.

Will they be welcomed? 
This sector’s contribution to healthcare at home has not always been considered significant by hospitals and ACOs, certainly not by CMS. Private Pay home care is not subject to the stringent regulations of Medicare and Medicaid. It has not been plagued by the government payer mindset. According to Steve “The Hurricane” Weiss and his faithful followers, it is time for skilled agencies to initiate the job of tearing down silo walls and either start providing home care services themselves or strategically partner with a private pay provider.

Starting and succeeding in the private pay home care space is not easy. The challenges associated with marketing, sales and service are significantly different from the challenges presented by public payers, even with their volumes of rules. Likewise, smart partnering with a Private Pay Home Care provider requires an alliance with your shared client, the referral source. Referrals between skilled and non-skilled can be a powerful source of continued business opportunities. Private pay agencies that accept the Hurricane Marketing Enterprise system are coached to successfully partner with Home Health and Hospice.

While the future of our beloved industry is going through a difficult and uncertain corridor, what is certain is that many opportunities exist because demographics are on your side. People in the United States will continue to turn 65 at 10,000 per day for the next few decades. From known statistics, 70% of all seniors over age 70 need help with at least two activities of daily living (ADLs). This is a great time to be in Healthcare at Home.

Editor’s note: the next Hurricane Bootcamp is in Houston in February. Click here for more information.

Michelle Boasten is a humanitarian and social entrepreneur. She is the Founder of “You Can Care, Inc.” an IRS 501(c)3 non-profit. Michelle has invented and developed a web and mobile incentivized volunteer caregiving platform to tackle the twin issues of caregiving and student loan debt. www.OnlyOneNurse.com

Prior to “You Can Care,” Ms. Boasten founded EVV (electronic visit verification) in 1996. By 1998 the product was patented and today more than 50% of all home health agencies are required and mandated by law to use an EVV system to evidence accountable caregiving activity. 

©2016 by Rowan Consulting Associates, Inc., Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved. This article originally appeared in Tim Rowan’s Home Care Technology Report. homecaretechreport.com One copy may be printed for personal use; further reproduction by permission only. editor@homecaretechreport.com

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27
Oct
Clear Theme Emerges at NAHC Meeting: “Come Together”

 

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By Tim Rowan, editor & publisher of Home Care Technology Report

In addition to the many familiar faces, new exhibitors at this year’s NAHC Annual Meeting included a few surprising entries. We will delve deeper into some of the more newsworthy items in coming issues but here is a quick overview of the ones that caught our eye.

Consolo Services Group, a leading supplier of SaaS-based EMR solutions for hospice and palliative care providers, made a couple of major announcements. The Lexington, Kentucky-based vendor introduced Hospice of Southern Kentucky as its newest client and it announced the tripling of its HQ office space. The company drew praise from Lexington Mayor Jim Gray for partnering with Kentucky Correctional Industries in Frankfort for its office furnishings. Consolo is a rapidly-growing hospice software company. We will feature interviews with its customers in an upcoming issue. [Rowan provides an overview of new players presenting at this annual meeting, such  as Elsevier Home Health Care, and Entra Health– a new and international mobile health IT company.  He also provides views on the attendence size of this year’s meeting.]

The appearance of Brookdale Senior Living, PointClickCare and Optima Healthcare Solutions in exhibit hall booths, the latter two among the largest in square footage and height, is a significant event. Optima is a leading provider of software to physical therapy companies, both standalone facilities and the ones that contract PTs to home health agencies. It introduced its new healthcare at home software (see HCTR, 10/19/16, “Optima Healthcare Solutions Launches New Homecare EMR“), signaling its recognition that at least that one silo has already been torn down. We visited their Florida headquarters after the NAHC meeting and will share their story next issue. Optimahcs.com

Canadian Skilled Nursing Facility software vendor PointClickCare also announced its expansion into home health, although, interestingly enough, the words “home health” seem to have been removed from the company’s web site in the days following the NAHC meeting.

TAKING THE TEMPERATURE
One typical conversation
among many, 2014-2016

She ran out of her company’s booth and called my name halfway down the exhibit hall aisle, proudly displaying her logo-emblazoned polo shirt. “Are you going to write about this?” Her tone was demanding but friendly.

“Write about your company?” I asked. “Certainly, do you have a newsworthy announcement this year?”

“No,” she insisted, “about this big empty exhibit hall. This meeting used to draw 2,500 people. There must be a third of that this year.”

“Home health providers are nervous,” I speculated, “cutting back on travel. But NAHC does have 1,045 on its attendee list.”

“I’ve seen that list,” she countered. “I’m on it. My competitors are on it. And, even if it’s true, why are we paying more to be here than we did when there really were 2,500?”

“The big vendors aren’t paying more.” I pointed out. “Look at how much smaller all of their booth spaces are from the old days.”

“You’re right,” her sales training the only thing keeping her tone upbeat. “Maybe that’s what we’ll do next year too.”

Optima’s largest client, Brookdale Senior Living, operates senior residences, across a wide range of care levels. In recent years, the nation’s largest senior living provider has been acquiring home health and hospice agencies. Though the publicly-traded company recently announced a profit margin slip within what it calls its “ancillary services” business from 15.4% to 12.5%, their presence at NAHC is a strong sign that major players recognize the convergence coming across post-acute care.

Elsevier was a razor-thin runner up in the innovation showcase at Lincoln Health’s Post-Acute Link contest last year. It offers three services of interest to healthcare at home providers. “Mosby’s Orientation to Home Health Care eLearning” teaches best practices to new staff. “Elsevier Home Health Care” is a mobile-accessible set of quick reminder courses covering evidence-based skills, patient education and drug information with competency management that nurses and therapists use in the field when uncertain about any care detail. Through a license from The Corridor Group, Elsevier offers the complete “CHEX eLearning Library.” More information

Medline has partnered with Qualidigm to provide a software tool that reviews nursing notes for regulatory compliance. SmartAudit is designed to support compliance with federal, accreditation and state licensure requirements, helping avoid penalties. More information

A new home telehealth vendor entered the fray, where profit margins and sales have been challenging for two decades, even for the Fortune 100 multi-nationals that have bought their way into it. Entra Health, however, is a little different. Whether it is different enough to succeed in a tough market remains to be seen. We will do a complete product review after we have had time to learn more than can be gathered from a quick trade show demo but what we did learn forced us to pay attention.

First, Entra Health is an international mobile health IT company focused on cloud-based remote patient monitoring, telehealth, health data exchange and analytics solutions. Familiar so far. What caught our eye was the remote patient monitoring kit they deliver to your patient’s home. Packaged in an oversized briefcase, it includes every Bluetooth vital sign device your patient might need, with each kit customized to each patient.

Entra charges $99 per month per patient. With upfront cost the barrier to entry that is heard most by telehealth sales personnel, followed closely by “what do we do with equipment we own after it becomes obsolete?”, this model may be popular. Until we do a full product demo and come back with more detail, additional information is available at 562-225-3918 and entrahealth.com

©2016 by Rowan Consulting Associates, Inc., Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved. This article originally appeared in Tim Rowan’s Home Care Technology Report. homecaretechreport.com One copy may be printed for personal use; further reproduction by permission only. editor@homecaretechreport.com

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20
Oct
Home Health Care 2.0; What Should We Call It?

 

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by Michelle Boasten,  humanitarian and social entrepreneur.

Home Care Technology Report attended the Ohio Council for Home Care and Hospice 2016 Annual Conference last month and picked up a distinct theme. Keynoters Bob Fazzi on day one and Barbara McCann on day two, apparently without collusion, both clearly pointed out that Home Health Care as we have known it is changing, has changed and will continue to change over the next five years; so much so that it will need an entirely new name.

Bob Fazzi calls it “Healthcare at Home” and Barbara McCann prefers “Care Based at Home.” The need for a new industry name has arisen because nothing about America’s three decade history with Medicare Certified HHAs will be the same going forward.[The author provides a quick history of the “Original Medicare business” at home industry and notes the other insurers/funding sources for home healthcare.  Expected changes in home care services and payments immediately on the horizon are described, and a very new look at the home health industry is suggested, one in which service providers do all that’s needed to help homecare patients avoid re-hospitalizations and adopt a goal to adopt new and relevant need to sell care-based at home services.]

Quick history
The current primary payer of Medicare Certified Home Health Agency services is popularly known as Original Medicare. The other large payers, such as Medicare Advantage HMOs, Medicare supplements and other private insurers make up most of the rest of the total. Amounts paid by patients and other private funding sources are significantly dwarfed by the big payers.

Recently, Original Medicare business has been disrupted by CMS’s Pre-Claim Review demonstration in Illinois — eventually to be implemented nationwide — and will soon be further redefined by Value Based Purchasing. Together, these two demonstrations are aimed at rooting out fraud, waste and abuse while creating an environment of quality measures that will adjust the episodic payment rate by rewarding high outcomes, while punishing those with bad outcomes, resulting in an ultimate hit of an 8% cut for the agencies with the worst outcomes.

CMS isn’t playing around. On January 26, 2015 Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell announced timeline goals established by CMS that will directly affect every provider and supplier of Medicare funded services throughout the U.S. healthcare system. These reforms will be so historic that anyone working in the Medicare Certified Home Health Care industry today will one day begin most work-related stories with… remember when?

 Let’s preview those future conversations…
 Remember when Medicare used to pay for a 60-day episode of care?
  • Remember when we used to bill a RAP and Final Claim?
  • Remember when you could get Home Health services without a discharge from a hospital, rehab or skilled nursing facility?
 For a moment, imagine Home Health without 60-day episodes of care. What is left are authorized visits. It may look very much like how Medicare Advantage plans authorize home health services today, for an unreasonably limited number of visits, decided by a non-clinician.

The new players and payers of Home Health services will shift from Original Medicare to hospitals, physicians, Accountable Care Organizations and managed care organizations. The services needed will be to keep patients out of the hospital. Period. Whatever it takes to stop admissions and readmissions will be the focus of the new payers. Because the direct payer is no longer Medicare, is there any reason to stay “Medicare-certified?” Even if there is, the way we do things under the certified umbrella will also change.

 You may say I’m a dreamer…

Imagine a new Home Health without 485s or OASIS reports once these tasks are handled by the hospital, ACO or physician’s office. Next, imagine Home Health looking more like a registry of staff and support services aimed only at keeping people out of the hospital. If the support is skill-based, that’s fine, but picture a cadre of supports that include everything from aide services to meal delivery. Again, anything to keep costs down and also keep people out of the hospital is the goal.

Your goal is to continue to be a relevant provider in this new world. According to Fazzi, “You have to stop saying ‘no.’ If you are asked, ‘Do you deliver meals?’ You say ‘yes.’ ‘Do you sweep floors?’ You say ‘yes.’ We don’t know what’s coming next but we know that saying ‘We only do skilled medical services’ means you will soon be ignored.”

 After your agency has been shaken to its core by the Pre-Claim Review and then by Value Based Purchasing, the open door opportunities for selling new “care based at home” services will emerge. Learning the skills of contracting will be tricky for some and straightforward for others. The easiest way to handle this is by pricing your services a la carte.

The key is to not accept any risk. Risk sharing should never be embraced by the Healthcare at Home Industry. Risk sharing is for hospitals, ACOs and physicians. You are the worker-bee, controlling neither care plans nor purse strings. Learning the world of staffing is the best way to prepare for the future of Healthcare at Home, Care Based at Home or whatever we will call Home Health Care 2.0.

 Michelle Boasten, is a humanitarian and social entrepreneur. She is the Founder of You Can Care, Inc. an IRS 501(c)3 non-profit. Michelle has invented and developed a web and mobile incentivized volunteer caregiving platform to tackle the twin issues of caregiving and student loan debt. www.OnlyOneNurse.com

©2016 by Rowan Consulting Associates, Inc., Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved. This article originally appeared in Tim Rowan’s Home Care Technology Report. homecaretechreport.com One copy may be printed for personal use; further reproduction by permission only. editor@homecaretechreport.com

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20
Oct
Optima Healthcare Solutions Launches New Homecare EMR

 

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By Tim Rowan, Editor & Publisher of Home Care Technology Report

For 25 years, Optima Healthcare Solutions has provided cloud-based software to more than 9,000 post-acute care providers, including contract therapy companies, skilled nursing facilities and outpatient clinics. Following several requests from its therapy provider clients that also operate healthcare at home agencies, Optima decided to build its own home health EMR.

On October 19, the Palm City-based software company announced that its new EMR is ready and will be made widely available beyond its existing customer base. Optima Homecare, designed under the direction of longtime home health veteran Darcey Trescone, RN, will be demonstrated at next week’s NAHC Annual Meeting in Orlando.[Details about the new product’s key features are provided in this article, along with executives’ and customers’ comment about the value of Optima Homecare.]

According to a company news release:

Trends of declining reimbursement and value based purchasing are creating a need for affordable software solutions that give home health agencies more control over their operations while allowing clinicians to effectively care for patients.

For more than two decades, thousands of therapy providers have relied on Optima’s software to support and grow their businesses. With this new solution, Optima is bringing its innovative approach to software to healthcare at home agencies.

Key features of Optima Homecare:

  • Greater operational efficiencies in fundamental business processes such as referral management and document tracking
  • Effective compliance checks throughout the system with alerts and visual guidance for back office staff, field clinicians and supervisors
  • Better outcomes with evidence-based clinical content and care plan-driven documentation
  • Improved reimbursement by providing built-in guardrails and driving compliance with order-based scheduling
  • Deeper business insights into productivity and profitability through real-time data available in role-based dashboards
  • True mobile access from any device, browser or operating system while connected or disconnected
  • Guaranteed data security and uptime through reliable, high availability SOC 1 and SOC 2-compliant dual data centers

Executive and Customer Comments

  • “As post-acute care changes, our customers are expanding into homecare in order to grow. We are deeply committed to their growth, so we decided to build a solution that would allow them to operate homecare agencies with the same success that they have brought to their therapy operations. Today we are bringing to market a full-featured homecare product that combines ease of use with rich, sophisticated functionality.” – Josh Pickus, Chief Executive Officer, Optima Healthcare Solutions
  • “We believe there is  a void in the homecare market. Caregivers are being forced to choose between a solution that is functionally rich but very expensive and difficult to implement, or a solution that is less expensive but missing critical features. Optima Homecare combines the best of both.” – Darcey Trescone, RN, VP of Homecare Solutions, Optima Healthcare Solutions
  • “After experiencing frustration with many other homecare solutions, we are very excited to use Optima Homecare! The workflow is done just right. We really like that the plan of care starts with the diagnosis and is goal-driven, which will make things easier on our clinicians, and keep our agency compliant. Plus, it has a lot of reporting and billing features usually only found in more expensive solutions.” – Brenda Bryant, Chief Compliance Officer, Choice Homecare

Optima will unveil Optima Homecare at the NAHC 2016 Annual Meeting & Exposition on October 23-25, booth #1241.

Supporting Resources 
• White Paper – Top 5 Trends Impacting Homecare
• eBook – Busting the Top 3 Evidence-Based Content Myths
• Data Sheet – Optima Homecare

©2016 by Rowan Consulting Associates, Inc., Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved. This article originally appeared in Tim Rowan’s Home Care Technology Report. homecaretechreport.com One copy may be printed for personal use; further reproduction by permission only. editor@homecaretechreport.com

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20
Oct
Procura Changes its Name, Keeps All Software Products Intact

 

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Schaumburg, IL — October 20 2016 — Procura Healthcare Software, a global provider of technology for long-term and post-acute care, today re-introduced itself to the healthcare industry under a new brand and company name, Complia Health. The company also adopted “Enabling the Business of Caring” as its new mission statement.

According to a company news release, the new name and mission reflect “the completeness of Complia Health’s product portfolio: unmatched clinical, operational, and financial solutions for home health, residential, community care, and hospice organizations.”

With constantly-changing regulations facing healthcare providers, the new name also reflects the company’s focus on compliance and support for all healthcare delivery funding sources.[More details are provided the company’s announcement of bringing together 5 product platforms, such as Procura, ContinuLink, Suncoast, Igea, and Progresa, to enable users to develop a unified cloud-based suite for the complete continuum of long-term and post-acute care delivery.]

“Today’s announcement brings five incredible product brands together, allowing us to communicate more clearly the power of our combined offerings,” said Complia Health CEO Chris Junker. “More importantly, we’re able to share exciting announcements we’re making in our current product platforms, the customer experience, and the development of a unified cloud-based suite for the complete continuum of long-term and post-acute care. As indicative of our commitment to our customers and product content, most recently we acquired Suncoast Solutions, one of the most recognized names in hospice care software.”

Investments in current product platforms
“Complia Health product platforms, Procura, ContinuLink, Suncoast, Igea, and Progresa, support clinical, operational, and financial home and hospice care functions,” the news release continued. “The company is making significant investments in these platforms, including new functionality, enhanced efficiency, and even greater scalability.”

The company also announced a new “Global Center of Excellence” at its Schaumburg, Illinois offices. It will be focused on innovation and client success. “The company is implementing new technologies to provide enhanced levels of support and recently added a global vice president of customer success to its executive team.”

Investments in “unified suite in the cloud” 
Complia Health is also investing considerable resources in the development of the first unified suite in the cloud for the full continuum of long-term and post-acute care. These investments build on the company’s core offerings for home health, residential, community care, and hospice.

“Our customers operate in an incredibly dynamic market,” said Chief Technology Officer Scott Overhill. “One thing is certain: their business models will look different in the next 18-24 months. The key to success is being nimble enough to turn change into opportunity, and we’ve been helping our customers do that for 25 years. Today’s announcement about our new name, significant technology and focus on customer experience further deepens our commitment to helping our customers stay agile.”

compliahealth.com

©2016 by Rowan Consulting Associates, Inc., Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved. This article originally appeared in Tim Rowan’s Home Care Technology Report. homecaretechreport.com One copy may be printed for personal use; further reproduction by permission only. editor@homecaretechreport.com

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20
Oct
Delta to Introduce Crescendo 2.0

 

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Altoona, PA — Delta Health Technologies® has announced the release of Crescendo 2.0. The company says this release builds upon the software solutions’ success with new features that provide even more accuracy and enhanced simplicity to the clinical documentation process. Clinicians are able to leverage their expertise in combination with intuitive guidance, regulatory compliant workflows, automated process prompts and alerts, patient education, and other time-saving tools improving the pace of documentation. Using Crescendo 2.0, clinical staff satisfaction is improved by increasing the amount of documentation completed in the patient’s home and allowing clinicians to provide more attention to patient care. [Other features of Crescendo 2.0 software that can be leveraged by healthcare at home clinicians while still in the home are delineated in this article, and include: greatly improved ability for accurate clinical documentation to be completed at a faster rate.]

“Crescendo 2.0 greatly improves the ability for accurate clinical documentation to be completed at a faster rate. The software includes several new features that improve clinical guidance while helping clinicians tap into their wealth of experience,” stated, Keith Crownover, President & CEO, Delta Health Technologies. “Clinical staff are empowered with Crescendo 2.0 to improve the speed and accuracy of their documentation, helping them focus on delivering patient care in the manner they prefer. Recently, we heard from a clinician who said they have never liked their job more than they do now since using our software. This clinician said now they didn’t have to chart late into the night and their family life has greatly improved as well.”

The news release announcing Crescendo 2.0 stated that it “continues to be the best software solution for agencies that manage multiple service lines, or are looking to expand in the future, and want a single solution to simplify their processes. Coordinated, value-based, IDT, private, and emerging care models are supported with consistent, accurate patient documentation. The patient information is accessible real-time in the financial, billing and scheduling modules of Crescendo 2 – facilitating back office operations, financial throughput, and the interoperability needs of payers and partners.”

“The product design philosophy in Crescendo 2.0 empowers the agency and the clinical staff to excel at providing great patient care in the world of ever-changing regulations and compliance concerns. The new functions reduce the redundant busy work found in all other software tools,” said Bill Bassett, VP Product Management and Marketing at Delta Health Technologies.  “Crescendo 2.0 removes the barriers that prevent clinicians from spending more time with patients. The software supports their ability to confidently produce complete and accurate documentation that supports the care being provided for each service line an agency provides.”

Delta has developed solutions that support agency efforts to deliver outstanding care for 42 years. Crescendo 2.0 continues that legacy and bridges the gap between the need to support proper documentation processes with a solution that improves the experience and speed of the process. As has been shown many times, there is a very high correlation between the level of documentation completed in-home and the accuracy of the patient information.

“With Crescendo 2.0 making the proper processes easier to accomplish, agencies will dramatically improve the quality of care, leading to faster claims submission and revenue while reducing audits,” the company asserted.

©2016 by Rowan Consulting Associates, Inc., Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved. This article originally appeared in Tim Rowan’s Home Care Technology Report. homecaretechreport.com One copy may be printed for personal use; further reproduction by permission only. editor@homecaretechreport.com

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20
Oct
HealthWyse Acquired by California Software Firm

 

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Agoura Hills, CA (October 18, 2016) — Casamba LLC announced Tuesday it has acquired two other leading software companies in the post-acute healthcare industry. Effective immediately, HealthWyse, of Wilmington, Massachusetts, and Therapy Source (the former therapy division of Source Medical), of Birmingham, Alabama, have joined the Casamba family of companies.

Based in Agoura Hills, California, Casamba was founded in 2004. It describes itself as the leading supplier of enterprise software systems to large therapy providers. This merger, the company says, supports Casamba’s vision to deliver a comprehensive solution across the patient post-acute care continuum. “The addition of HealthWyse and Therapy Source as two leading industry solution providers, combined with Casamba’s therapy-management business, creates a powerful triad of solution providers in the post-acute space.”

The new, collaborative alliance is expected to enable solutions that cross boundaries to deliver enhanced efficiencies, lower costs, and increased value to providers, while supporting them in delivering better care to patients. “In this era of bundled payments, the combined entities will enable providers to have the latitude to optimize their delivery of care across the continuum while tightening their revenue cycle,” said Ronnie Amrany, President and CEO of Casamba. “We are pleased to join forces with HealthWyse and Therapy Source to enhance our offering, and support current and future clients of all three organizations with superior software and services across the post-acute continuum.” [Details are provided about minimal expected changes to be expected regarding location and staffing of the 2 acquired companies; and about the much wider ranging reach and more integration of data collected by the 2 acquired companies.].

What will change?
A company spokesperson said all three companies will remain in their current locations and that there will be no immediate layoffs. Therapy Source will separate from its parent company, Source Medical, but will operate out of its own suite at the same Birmingham address.

“HealthWyse is excited to be part of the Casamba vision for post-acute care EMR,” said HealthWyse CEO Graham Barnes. “Together we will realize an integrated pathway to post-acute care coordination, patient referral, and data flow for bundled payment and value-based purchasing, across skilled nursing, outpatient rehab, home health and hospice settings.”

“Our healthcare clients need better systems and more integration,” said David McMullen, Chief Therapy Officer for Therapy Source. “The combination of these three market leaders, working together, empowers us to drive revolutionary workflow innovation through a single platform for both the patients and the providers across the rehab continuum of care.”

The product and service offerings from HealthWyse provide a fully integrated electronic medical record (EMR) for home health, hospice and private duty care that supports clinical, financial and regulatory needs of this health market segment. Therapy Source provides clinical and billing solutions to more than 3,500 outpatient therapy clinics across the country through its TherapySource, Rehab Toolkit, and Revenue Cycle Services solutions.

Boston-based private equity investment firm ABRY Partners represented both Casamba and Source Medical in the transaction. AGC Partners, based in Boston, represented the HealthWyse organization.

About Casamba, LLC
Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Agoura Hills, California, Casamba supplies enterprise software systems to large providers of therapy in the United States, primarily long term care organizations. Through its cloud-based platform, Casamba provides clinical therapy documentation, scheduling and billing automation solutions for contract therapy and other healthcare organizations. Casamba serves more than 8,000 skilled nursing, acute, outpatient and home health locations in the country, partnering with leading healthcare providers to serve patients on a national scale.
casamba.net

About HealthWyse
Founded in 1998, HealthWyse, LLC provides integrated clinical and financial information software and services to over 125 home health, hospice and private duty agencies across the nation, with almost $1B in claims processed through the system each year. The HealthWyse software suite, accessed by over 50,000 end-users, is a fully integrated EMR solution that supports billing, scheduling, compliance and point of care operations, enabling clients to address clinical, financial and regulatory challenges.
healthwyse.com

About SourceMed
SourceMed is the largest provider of outpatient information solutions and revenue cycle services for ambulatory surgery centers and specialty hospitals. With over 30 years of industry experience and the confidence of more than 250 consultants and management companies, the company’s software, analytics, revenue cycle services, and professional services give providers the insight to deliver a higher standard of patient care. Their integrated solutions capture, exchange, and analyze data enabling more than 2,500 outpatient surgery facilities nationwide to optimize revenue, operational efficiency, and compliance.
sourcemed.net

©2016 by Rowan Consulting Associates, Inc., Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved. This article originally appeared in Tim Rowan’s Home Care Technology Report. homecaretechreport.com One copy may be printed for personal use; further reproduction by permission only. editor@homecaretechreport.com

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20
Oct
Amedisys VP Jailed for Wire Fraud

 

stored in: Tim Rowan's Home Care Technology Report and tagged: ,
Baton Rouge, LA. — Federal prosecutors announced on Wednesday, October 12 that a former vice president for Amedisys has been sentenced to four years in prison for a wire fraud scheme through which he embezzled more than $7.6 million from the Baton Rouge healthcare at home provider. [Details are provided about the 8-year scheme engineered by Michael David Pitts.  Comments from senior officials at Amedisys are also presented in this article.]

 

U.S. Attorney Walt Green said in a news release Judge John deGravelles handed down the sentence Wednesday for 41-year-old Michael David Pitts, who was vice president of the Amedisys tax unit when he defrauded the company through a complex scheme of shell entities and fictitious tax credits. He was charged last March and pleaded guilty.

In his role at the company, Pitts, who joined Amedisys in 2005, had the authority and ability to buy tax credits for the purpose of reducing state income taxes for Amedisys, which has its corporate offices in Baton Rouge and provides services in 36 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

Official Amedisys Comment

“Amedisys commends the work of the US Attorney and the FBI in bringing Mike Pitts to justice,” stated Dave Kemmerly, General Counsel and Senior Vice President of Government Affairs for Amedisys.

”We would also like to thank Don Cazayoux and Lane Ewing of Cazayoux Ewing Law Firm and Ashley Moore of Taylor Porter Attorneys at Law for their representation and support in this matter. We are pleased to put this matter behind us as we stay focused on providing the highest quality of care to the patients we serve.”

In addition to the four-year prison sentence, Pitts was also ordered to pay $7.86 million in restitution to Amedisys, the Amedisys Political Action Committee and the company’s insurer, Ace Westchester Chubb, U.S. Attorney Walt Green said in a news release.

Over the eight years of the scheme, Pitts set up two shell corporations, Evergreen Incentives and Stonehenge, to sell fake tax credits to Amedisys, according to federal prosecutors.

He also presented false film credit transfer agreements to his supervisors, who approved them, clearing the way for Pitts to buy the credits on behalf of Amedisys, then personally collect the money Amedisys paid for them, Green said.

Between Oct. 3, 2006 and May 16, 2014, Pitts had Amedisys make 21 wire transfers, then diverted the funds from an Amedisys account at JPMorgan Chase Bank to his own accounts at Capital One Bank and Regions Bank, reaping more than $7.6 million.

“Today, Mr. Pitts’ insatiable greed landed him in jail for the next four years. He violated the trust that Amedisys placed in him for over nine years,” Green said in a news release on Wednesday.

The case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Louisiana and investigated by the FBI, with assistance from Amedisys, Green said.

 

©2016 by Rowan Consulting Associates, Inc., Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved. This article originally appeared in Tim Rowan’s Home Care Technology Report. homecaretechreport.com One copy may be printed for personal use; further reproduction by permission only. editor@homecaretechreport.com

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19
Oct
Vendor Watch: AxisCare Home Care Software; and BKD, LLC and complimentary access to current hospice rates

 

stored in: Tim Rowan's Home Care Technology Report and tagged: , ,

Mobile App Records 100,000th Visit

Waco, Texas — October 17, 2016 — AxisCare announced today that its GPS mobile app has managed 100,000 visits in just a few months after being released. The AxisCare Mobile app allows caregivers to view ADLs, update care notes, pick up open shifts and track mileage and expenses. Agency admins can set a geo-fence around the client’s home and ensure caregivers are clocking in at the approved GPS location, cutting down on caregiver fraud.

With the surge in mobile users, AxisCare has focused on adapting to the needs of home care agency owners. New features rolled out periodically ensure the app keeps up with demands for and ease of use for mobile users. With in-house software production and client support, agency owners are able to reach AxisCare employees whenever they need assistance in the system. [A second item in this Vendor Watch segment notes that BKD, LLP (one of this country’s largest accounting and advisory firms) will provide complementary access on its website to current hospice payment rates.]

Todd Allen, AxisCare’s President, shared that the company was pleasantly surprised by the number of visits managed in AxisCare Mobile in such a brief span of time. “These 100,000 visits represent over half a million hours of care provided and managed inside AxisCare Mobile. I couldn’t be more thrilled with how our clients are adopting this new technology and making the most out of our system. It’s a big win for agencies and caregivers alike, allowing both groups to spend less time on record keeping and more time providing care.”

Colin Castle of Home Instead is grateful for the solutions AxisCare Mobile provides his home care agency. “AxisCare stepped up and developed a wonderful app that helps us solve a number of our challenges. It allows our caregivers to review their upcoming schedules in detail and even allows our caregivers to view available shifts that have yet to be assigned. Our experience with the app has been great.”

About AxisCare Home Care Software
AxisCare is a full service Home Care software system that allows business owners to cut down on administrative tasks. AxisCare Home Care software was designed with the workflow of a private duty agency in mind. Features include marketing, scheduling, a GPS mobile app for caregivers, billing, payroll integration, full telephony and integrated Medicaid and Long-Term Care Insurance electronic billing.
axiscaresales.com

 

 

Hospice Payment Rates Published
BKD, LLP announced this week that the Medicare hospice rates, effective October 1, 2016, are now available on its web site at the following link:

bkd.com/industries/health-care/home-care-hospice/hospice-payment-rates.htm

BKD’s Managing Director Aaron Little said the rates are being made available on a complimentary basis. He suggested directing questions about the rates to your BKD advisor, or to contact him directly if you do not have one.
mlittle@bkd.com

©2016 by Rowan Consulting Associates, Inc., Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved. This article originally appeared in Tim Rowan’s Home Care Technology Report. homecaretechreport.com One copy may be printed for personal use; further reproduction by permission only. editor@homecaretechreport.com

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