All Blog Posts (29)

In order to distinguish your homecare patients with Type 2 Diabetes who are at increased risk of developing other chronic diseases – such as heart disease, kidney disease, etc. – identify patients with one or more of the following risk factors within a particular time period:

• more than one HbA1C that is greater than 7% and/or
• LDL-C greater than 100 mg/DL and/or
• blood pressure readings of greater than 140/90 and/or
• individuals who smoke…

Three main areas or systems will need to be addressed in order to support accountable care objectives; care transition, coordination of evidence-based care and consistent reporting and communication.

Care Transition and Coordination of Evidence-Based Care

As the patient transitions from one care setting to another, it is important to address those areas that are often a concern, such as summary of care provided by previous setting, medications, follow-up with primary care…

The Quality Improvement Organizations 10th Statement of Work requirements, as they are applicable to health care associated infections, overlaps with at least one measure tracked by physicians, and could be a reason for hospitalization. Infections such as the following are cited (Federal Register, April 7, 2011 and Federal Register, November 2,…

Numerous quality measures for physicians are focused on disease processes such as diabetes mellitus, heart failure, and chronic kidney disease.  Screening or Prevention measures applicable to diabetes, mammograms, colorectal cancer screening, body mass index evaluation (a noted contributory factor to heart disease and diabetes) are also part of physician reporting.

For Medicare recipients receiving home care services between 1997 and 2009, diabetes and heart failure are the leading…

While home care has no reported outcomes regarding smoking cessation defined, both hospitals and physicians do. Smoking has been identified as a contributing factor to pneumonia, heart disease, cancers, etc. (National Cancer Institute) and would logically contribute to the hospitalization costs.

The Department of Health and Human Services published a Surgeon General’s report that indicates that counseling and…

An area of commonality between all the hospital, physician and home care outcomes is immunizations.  Two types of immunizations / vaccines are the focus:

1. Influenza
2. Pneumococcal

Immunizations are an integral part of avoiding hospitalization.  Nichol KL, Wuorenma J, and von Stemberg (as cited by the Center for Disease Control, August 6, 2010) report a ‘substantial reduction…

Perhaps the most publicized topic is hospital readmission rates.  In 2007, MedPAC reported that “17.6% of admissions result in readmissions within 30 days of discharge, accounting for $15 billion in spending.  Not all of the readmissions are avoidable, but some are” (MedPAC, June 2007, p. 103).

The majority of hospital readmission costs are associated with four distinct medical conditions, which lead to over $1.6…

No ethical member of the home care community would condone defrauding the Medicare program.  The Senate inquiry was not at all a surprise after the April 26, 2010 Wall…

Delta Health Technologies recently worked with a marketing firm to establish a brand narrative for our company.  A brand narrative is intended to tell a company’s unique story, the story of their culture, the story of what makes the company different.  The narrative is built by interviewing the company’s staff and customers to understand what is unique about the company, its products and services.   The marketing company, Varsity Branding, then presented three different versions of the…

One of the most anticipated technologies ever - the iPad, along with the latest tablet computers - is being used today more and more by businesses to replace bulky laptops. In a category all its own, many still wonder what the iPad can accomplish in business, and tomorrow’s webinar will explore exactly what this tool brings to the table.

Leading the way (and this webinar), are Will Chatham, Web Manager and…

OK. Let’s see. There’s Facebook, of course.  And…LinkedIn, Twitter, HomecareCommunity.org, blogging,…

MaximaCare Home Health Care Services now accepts: Medicaid, Medicare, HealthSmart Preferred, Humana, Tricare, United Health Care and Universal Insurances.  As additional managed care contracts are solidified, we will communicate this information.  Above all, aside from your standard home health care services, MaximaCare specializes in IV Infusion Therapy and will be introducing their new Home Cardiac Care Program in June 2011, "Stay Tuned!" 

After announcing that we were launching our new software solution, ClinicalVirtuoso, we had an amazing response from not only the industry at large, but from the very people for whom it was designed – homecare therapists.…

MedPAC (Medicare Payment Advisory Commission) published their Report to the Congress: Medicare Payment Policy on March 15, 2011. Of course there are multiple recommendations included in the report applicable to home health, most of which were of no surprise. You might want to take the time to look over the recommendations.

One thing that caught my eye was…

A colleague and I had the honor of attending Fazzi Associates’ National OASIS Leadership Forum in San Antonio from February 28 to March 2. Thank you to Fazzi Associates for this amazing event!

Not only was the weather fabulous, but the conversations throughout the forum were quite enlightening and at times thought-provoking.

During one session, the topic of the “comprehensive assessment for…