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Grow your Business ...
Get Ready for the Future
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PCOMING EVENTS:
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November Webinar:
"Marketing to Trusted Advisors:
Proven techniques to reach high-potential referral sources"
With Stephen Tweed and Michael Sullivan
November 29th, 2012
4:00 - 5:00 pm Eastern
In this high impact, interactive workshop, Stephen Tweed and Michael Sullivan will share with you the latest insights and strategies from their experience in home care and financial services including trust services. Then Stephen and Mike will guide you in developing a highly effective bank trust officers marketing strategy to help you create a sales strategy that leads to improved performance, more inquiries, convert more admissions, and serve more clients. This interactive workshop is loaded with time-tested tips and ideas which the presenters have found useful and usable from their experience, as well as conversations with bank trust officers and other trusted advisors. |
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Issue: #244
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November 28, 2012
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Greetings!
... to this issue of Home Health Care Today, the leading electronic newsletter for home health care and hospice executives who want to grow their business and get ready for the future.
Please enjoy this newsletter, and join our interactive community.
Best regards,
Stephen Tweed
CEO
Leading Home Care ... a Tweed Jeffries company |
Proposed Settlement May Extend Coverage to More Medicare Home Health Patients
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Elizabeth E. Hogue, Esq.
A proposed settlement in a nationwide class-action lawsuit may provide coverage for skilled nursing care and therapy services to Medicare beneficiaries who do not show a likelihood of medical or functional improvement. The lead plaintiff in the case is Rosalie Glenda R. Jimmo of Bristol, Vermont. She has been blind since childhood and her right leg was amputated due to complications of diabetes. She is in a wheelchair. Ms. Jimmo is joined in the lawsuit by another plaintiff, Ms. Rosalie J. Berkowitz of Stamford, Connecticut. Ms. Berkowitz has multiple sclerosis. The Medicare Program denied coverage for skilled nursing and physical therapy on the grounds that she showed no improvement as a result of these services.
The proposed settlement means that CMS will rewrite the Medicare coverage manual to allow for payment for services if they are needed to maintain the patient's current condition, or to prevent or slow further deterioration, even if patients' conditions are not expected to improve. This significant change in coverage may mean that many more patients may be eligible for the Medicare home health benefit.
Read more...
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Palliative Care Today: Impacting quality of life in home health care hospice
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By Chris Willis, MSW, LSW  Consultant
OneOnOne Hospice Solutions
One of the fastest growing home health care programs in our country is Palliative Care. Hospitals, home health agencies, hospices, and long term care organizations are starting Palliative Care programs. This trend is demonstrated as the National Hospice Organization, which was formed in 1978, changed its name to National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization in 2000. There seems to be some confusion as to 'what is palliative care?' Whether seeking the answer from the many resources in the medical and care communities on online with the internet, each source states it a little differently. NHCPO defines Palliative Care as "treatment that enhances comfort and improves the quality of an individual's life during the last phase of life." In the 12 ½ years spent with one of the premier hospices in the state of Arizona, I have come to define palliative care as "a service that provides patient driven care to individuals diagnosed with a serious, chronic or terminal condition." This definition grew from our experiences with patients who were seeking care that would assist and empower them in a manner and route that was specific to them.
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| How Are Medicare Cuts Affecting Your Agency? | 
By Stephen Tweed, CSP
Last week I was speaking at the NAHC annual conference in Orlando on the subject of "Serving More Patients." We had a terrific audience and engaged in some great conversations.One of the questions I was asking home health agency leaders as well as some of our colleagues who provide financial services for home health agencies is about the financial performance of home health in general. The responses I received indicated to me that many agencies are feeling the pinch more this year than last year from the Medicare cuts in reimbursement.This message was reinforced as looked at the third quarter 2012 financial results from the Big Four publicly traded home health companies.
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| CMS releases Medicare Home Health updates for 2013 |  The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued a final rule to update the Home Health Prospective Payment System (HH PPS) rates for Calendar Year (CY) 2013. Payments to home health agencies are estimated to be virtually unchanged next year, decreasing by approximately $10 million in CY 2013 (about 0.01%). This reflects the net effect of a 1.3 percent home health payment update, an updated wage index, an update to the fixed-dollar loss (FDL) ratio, and a case-mix coding adjustment intended to offset coding changes unrelated to changes in patient health needs. |
| Fabulous New Health Care Commercial - Stethoscope |  A friend sent me a link to this new commercial called, "Stethoscope." He said, "Please don't play this until you have great sound. It's really great. It's not political, and you'll love it."
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| Points of Learning from Disaster Plan Deployment |  By Stephen Tweed
After the lessons learned by home health agencies in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, state home care associations and local home health agencies and hospices created Emergency Preparedness Plans to deal with future national disasters. In interviewing leaders in home health agencies whose patients and employees were directly affected by the aftermath of the storm, we were able to document some simple strategies to get ready for the future.
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| LinkedIn Update | 
The Leading Home Care Network discussion group on LinkedIn has just passed 3,300 members. Check in to see the latest discussions:
The Leading Home Care Network is a closed group, and we limit membership to active owners, CEOs, administrators, and senior staff members in home health, hospice, and private duty home care. There's no blatant advertising or unrelated posts to waste your time. Take a look.
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Permission to Reproduce
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Permission is granted to healthcare publications, associations and companies to reproduce this article in your publication, or to distribute copies to your leaders, on the condition that you reproduce the credits and contact information as follows: "Reprinted with permission from Home Health Care Today. Copyright 2012 Stephen C. Tweed. To receive a FREE subscription to this newsletter, log on to www.leadinghomecare.com"
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| Stephen Tweed wants to work with you to help your company GROW! | Stephen Tweed, CEO of Leading Home Care, has been working with home  health agencies, hospice and home care leaders for over 25 years. His focus is to help you grow your business, through effective growth strategies, sales and marketing, and leadership development. Using the Storyboarding technique from the Walt Disney organization, Stephen has developed a proven model of strategic thinking, and a highly interactive process for getting your senior leaders, middle managers, and board of directors involved. He'll lead you through assessing your current reality, setting a direction for the future, defining your competitive advantage, developing focused action plans, and measuring the success of your agency and your plan.
We have also found that the biggest barrier to growth is your ability to find and keep capable people, so we have added recruiting, selection, and retention to our offerings.
If you and your leadership team want to grow your business and get ready for the future, call us today to set up a conversation with Stephen Tweed to discuss your business goals.
| | Visit our web site for more details |
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