Vendor Watch Archives - Page 2 of 2

HHAeXchange Makes Leadership Changes

Vendor Watch

by Kristin Rowan | Apr 18, 2024 | Vendor Watch

by Kristin Rowan, Editor

On February 21, 2024, HHAeXchange announced a change in leadership for the homecare management solutions company. Former Chief Revenue Officer Scott Schwartz was named Chief Operating Officer and new hire Lori Harrington came on board as the Senior Vice President of Product. You can read the press release from HHAeXchange here.

HHAeXchange provides management solutions for providers, MCOs, and state Medicaid agencies. The software was designed specifically for home and community-based services (HCBS) and connects state agences, MCOs, providers, and caregivers through its web-based platform. According to HHAeXchange, the personnel changes show the company’s “commitment to providing innovative solutions that some homecare industry challenges.

I had the opportunity to reach out to Scott and Lori to get, in their own words, their visions for the future of HHAeXchange and the industry.

The Rowan Report: Thank you, Scott and Lori for taking some time to talk with The Rowan Report. First, congratulations to you both on your new roles. Can you each share a little about your background and career?

Scott Schwartz: For over 20 years, I’ve focused on system of record, vertical SaaS software and technology, with experience leading sales, marketing, client success and operations. I started my career as a process engineer and have held leadership positions at several SaaS companies, including as the founder and general manager of CampSite. I joined HHAeXchange in 2017 as vice president and have also served as senior vice president and chief revenue officer before stepping into my current role. As chief operating officer, my aim is to galvanize the organization around a shared vision of operational efficiency, innovative service delivery, and customer satisfaction.

Lori Harrington: I have enjoyed a career of over 20 years in healthcare with a background in product strategy and informatics. In my most recent role as vice president of product management at Teledoc, I led product strategy for value-based care initiatives. My passion for digital transformation in B2B2C markets has driven successful healthcare initiatives from ideation to commercialization. I believe that success in healthcare is really understanding your users and building solutions to solve their everyday problems in a seamless, understandable way.

RR: Scott, as part of your new responsibilities at HHAeXchange, how will you ensure effective communication and collaboration between internal departments to better serve customers?

Scott: We’re focused on enhancing our platform, which connects state agencies, managed care organizations, providers and caregivers, so cross-departmental communication and collaboration are vital. With shared services such as implementation, revenue cycle operations, integrations, technical customer care, training, and customer education under my purview, I plan to streamline communication pathways and ensure all teams are aligned with and working toward our common goals.
We want to leverage our teams’ diverse talents to drive transformation. My approach includes fostering an integrated work environment where interdepartmental meetings, clear information channels, and shared objectives are the norm. Regular check-ins and transparent leadership are key to ensuring every department understands how their work directly benefits our clients, the members they serve, and the company’s broader goals.

RR: And how will you ensure HHAeXchange’s solutions and product enhancements meet the needs of all homecare stakeholders – caregivers, provider agencies, members, and payers?

Scott: Engaging with stakeholders is critical. We involve provider agencies, caregivers, payers and others in our development process to ensure that our platform addresses real-world needs effectively. Our comprehensive engagement strategies support this with initiatives like periodic customer summits, road shows, and information sessions to capture a wide array of insights and feedback.
We monitor industry trends, regulatory changes, and technological advancements, which are factored into planned enhancements and solution updates. And with a team of reputable industry experts, we’re working to ensure that our products exceed the evolving needs of all homecare stakeholders.

Lori: We understand that stakeholders in the homecare space have diverse and critical needs. We keep a pulse on industry trends and challenges such as issues with caregiver turnover, regulatory & compliance changes, increasing volume of live-in caregivers, and an increase in diversification in home care utilization. With these observations, we aim to provide products that support healthcare agencies and caregivers as these trends evolve. Our solutions must be built with a nimbleness that accounts for a continuous change in regulations, EVV compliance requirements, and stakeholder expectations. Frequently engaging with stakeholders, conducting thorough market research, and incorporating feedback loops are integral to our product development processes.

RR: Lori, you mentioned the diverse needs of your stakeholders. What are the greatest problems your clients and prospects say they are looking to solve with improved homecare management software solutions and EVV platforms?

Lori: Our clients are prioritizing caregiver retention and looking for comprehensive solutions to streamline operational processes like billing, HR, and payroll while ensuring regulatory compliance and providing high-quality member care. They need tools to manage the diverse locations of members’ and workers’ schedules, foster strong member-caregiver matches, and enable transparent communications among provider teams.

Taking those challenges into consideration, HHAeXchange aims to equip our solutions with time-saving, stress-reducing features. Operational worklists, for example, alert agencies to important dates and actions their teams need to take regarding caregiver compliance and client authorizations. Our appointment module and case broadcasting feature reduce hassles associated with scheduling visits and quickly filling unexpectedly open shifts.

RR: Two questions, Lori. What trends are you seeing that are transforming homecare delivery models and, in addition to technology, are there any other trends shaping the homecare industry in 2024?

Lori: The ongoing caregiver shortage remains a concern, driving a shift toward more strategic technology investments and training opportunities. Homecare delivery is becoming more person-centered, suggesting the industry has adjusted to EVV and is using the technology to incorporate collaboration with families as caregiver participants. Additionally, there’s a growing emphasis on self-direction, with clients seeking more choice, flexibility and control in their care. Compliance is gaining more attention, with increased scrutiny to ensure standards of care are met across the board. Data and analytics will continue to be a primary enabler for how healthcare is shaped. We account for all of this in our product strategy and development plans.

RR: Final questions for you, Scott. How does HHAeXchange envision the homecare industry evolving in 2024 and, more specifically, how do you see the company’s innovations playing a role in that transformation?

Scott: The homecare industry is at a critical juncture. As Lori said, we’ve noted significant shifts toward value-based care, self-directed care, and person-centered approaches. At the same time, the fundamentals of homecare are as important as ever. HHAeXchange’s role is to stay ahead of trends while improving product offerings and customer experiences. We strive to balance innovative thought leadership with steady progress, continually enhancing the functionality of our foundational platforms to meet clients’ needs.
We’re investing in scalable technology, service improvements, customer education, and strategic integrations to accommodate the industry’s evolution. Our leadership is committed to empowering providers and payers alike with tools to improve caregivers’ efficiency and address fraud, waste and abuse in the industry. Through these efforts and plans, we aim to facilitate a more sustainable, higher-quality, and accessible homecare ecosystem for all involved, ensuring members have the option to receive care and treatment in the comfort of their own homes.

RR: Thank you both, again, for your time. I wish you both great success in your new roles.

# # #

Kristin Rowan has been working at Healthcare at Home: The Rowan Report since 2008. She has a master’s degree in business administration and marketing and runs Girard Marketing Group, a multi-faceted boutique marketing firm specializing in event planning, sales, and marketing strategy. She has recently taken on the role of Editor of The Rowan Report and will add her voice to current Home Care topics as well as marketing tips for home care agencies. Connect with Kristin directly kristin@girardmarketinggroup.com or www.girardmarketinggroup.com

©2024 by The Rowan Report, Peoria, AZ. All rights reserved. This article originally appeared in Healthcare at Home: The Rowan Report. One copy may be printed for personal use: further reproduction by permission only. editor@therowanreport.com

CMS Issues Medicaid Guidance on Change Healthcare Hack

CMS

by Kristin Rowan | Mar 20, 2024 | CMS, Vendor Watch

From the NAHC News Desk,

March 19, 2024

On March 15th, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a Center Informational Bulletin (CIB) that provides guidance and flexibilities to mitigate the impacts on providers resulting from the Change Healthcare Hack. In the guidance, CMS advises state Medicaid agencies that certain requirements will not be enforced, until June 30th, to enable ongoing funds to flow to providers and to prevent disruption of access to Medicaid services, prevent associated negative health outcomes, and avoid solvency issues for providers.

The most important component of the guidance is the ability for states to make interim payments to providers to avoid operational disruptions. Federal law and regulation does not allow for “advance payments” in Medicaid fee-for-service systems, despite their availability in Medicaid managed care environments; however, states can make interim payments to providers subject to reconciliation with actual services delivered.

CMS stresses that such interim payments are not advanced payments or prepayments prior to services furnished by providers, but rather are payments for services furnished that are subject to final reconciliation once the state has access to individual claims data currently inaccessible due to the cybersecurity incident.

The flexibilities CMS discusses in the guidance include:

Modifying required timelines for public notice, public process, and Tribal consultation and to obtain an earlier effective date for certain kinds of SPAs than would otherwise be possible;
Use interim payment methodologies to pay providers without current period claims data, as long they are determined via current approved payment rates, limiting the interim payments to the amount expected for each specific provider based on recent history, and reconciling the interim payments with final payments based on the actual services provided once they can be properly identified. These could be effective retroactively to the date when claims payment processing was disrupted due to the cybersecurity incident and could last until June 30, 2024;
Suspend beneficiary cost sharing requirements described in their state plans when necessary to avoid service disruptions for Medicaid beneficiaries for services affected by the hack;

CMS also includes language urging Medicaid managed care plans to make prospective payments to impacted providers and reiterating that plans do not need prior CMS authority to make prospective payments to providers. CMS also indicates that plans can:

Suspend or modify prior authorization requirements;
Allow early prescription refills and/or extend the length of prescription refills;
Extend existing prior authorizations;
Suspend out-of-network requirements; and
Modify or update cost-sharing requirements to be consistent with any changes that are made in the Medicaid state plan.

The full guidance is available online at: https://www.medicaid.gov/sites/default/files/2024-03/cib031524.pdf.

Meet the Remarkable Women of the International Home Care Nurses Organization

Admin

by Kristin Rowan | Mar 6, 2024 | Admin, Clinical, Vendor Watch

By Kristin Rowan, Editor

Last week, I had the honor of speaking with three of the dynamic leaders of the International Home Care Nurses Organization (IHCNO). Between them, they have more than 150 years of nursing and administrative experience. Beyond that, they are some of the most engaging and amazing women I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing.

Meet the Team

Barbara Piskor is the outgoing President of IHCNO. She started working as a nurse in 1964 and has held positions in home health nursing, clinical nursing, administration, national surveying with the Joint Commission, and consulting.

Marilyn Harris is the IHCNO Treasurer. She became a visiting nurse in 1960, was an administrator for the VNA, and spent 20 years as a hospital-based agency administrator.

Susan Hinck is the incoming President of IHCNO. She become a home health nurse in the 1980s and has been a clinician, educator, administrator, and advance practice nurse.

History of IHCNO

IHCNO started as a grassroots organization to serve the care needs of nurses. Between 2009 and 20012, there were concerns about teaching and practice. The industry was expanding and was in need of consistency. This launched the development of a communication network of home care nurses. Their mission is “To communicate, connect, and collaborate with home care nurses around the globe.”

The first members of IHCNO identified then-current home care nurse issues and developed action plans, a committee, and the first international conference event, which was attended by nurses from thirteen countries its inaugural year. They have since added webinars, outreach, and organizational development and are working on developing international guidelines and standards.

The Conversation

Rowan Report: “Barbara, as the outgoing President, what do you hope for the future of IHCNO?”

Barbara Piskor: “For IHCNO to be effective in helping to develop the area of global excellence in home-based nursing. To be recognized as the “go-to” organization for what’s happening in home-0based care related to nursing, from prenatal through to aging in place. To give the message that real health care is in the home; it’s a privilege to be a guest in the home, delivering care. It’s how you get to know the person, their family, and their home situation.

RR: “Susan, as the incoming President, what are your plans and goals for IHCNO for 2024 and beyond?”

Susan Hinck: “IHCNO has always been a volunteer organization, which comes with some challenges. We are contracting with a management company to provide stability and continuity for the organization. The same committed group of people working full0time to grow the organization will benefit from having a management company overseeing logistics so we can focus on additional projects and work more with home care nurses in different countries. There are some countries and continents where home care is not as well developed. For example, South America and Africa have well developed programs for maternity and pediatric home care, but not for older adults.”

RR: “Marilyn, the IHCNO has offers research grants in your name. Tell me about the IHCNO research.”

Marilyn Harris: “The Marilyn D. Harris research grant offers financial support for nurse researchers around the world. After the submission period, applications go through an international review board and one research topic is chosen. In the past, we have funded research on topics like the use of simulation tools in home care and the transition from home care to hospice. This year we will award our sixth research grant.

“We also have a very active internal research department. We are currently studying the scope and standards of home-based nursing around the world. All countries have scope and standards of practice for nursing, but they are not specific to nurses in home-based care. There are a lot of differences in practice across countries.”

RR: “You also have an award program, right?”

Harris: “Yes, that’s right. The Daisy Foundation was established by Bonnie and Mark Barnes to honor their sone. The Daisy award is given to home nurses for extraordinary compassion and care. It’s a worldwide initiative awarded through nomination and blind review. You can find the criteria and nomination forms on our website: https://www.ihcno.org/.”

RR: “Barbara, besides the research, are there other initiatives IHCNO is working on?”

Piskor: “A lot of our focus has been on short-term post-acute care for recovery and rehabilitation. But, custodial care, long-term skilled care, especially for younger adults who need long-term help is one of the fastest growing segments in the home care industry, but it is hampered by reimbursement. Intermittent visit programs are partially covered by Medicare and some Medicaid reimbursement, but isn’t covered by private insurance unless the patient is placed in a nursing home.”

Hinck: “The U.S. can learn a lot from other countries. We spend twice as much on healthcare but are in worse health and have higher mortality rates.”

Piskor: “That’s so true. Another initiative we have is working with provider, practice-based, and educational entities to let people know that home care is a thing. Clinical rotations in home care are necessary in nursing programs. More people need home-based care than ever before and there aren’t enough nursing students aware that home care is an option for them.”

RR: “Susan, IHCNO recently became a membership organization. Can you tell our readers about the member benefits you offer?”

Hinck: “That’s correct. As of January, 2024, IHCNO is a member organization. The biggest benefit of being a member is having a community of nurses to talk to who know what it’s like to be a home care nurse. You can check in and let people know how things are going in your part of the world. We are fostering communication and collaboration among home care nurses around the globe.

“Membership also gets you discounts for IHCNO hosted conferences and webinars and a discount for our multidisciplinary journal Home Health Care Now. We also have individual and corporate-level memberships available.”

RR: “Thank you all for taking the time to share your story with us.”

We will continue to bring you research and news from IHCNO, starting with some of the published works that have come from the past research grant winners. If you have any questions about membership, the grants, the Daisy award nominations, or any of the resources and support available through IHCNO, please reach out to them through their website: https://www.ihcno.org/

# # #

Kristin Rowan has been working at Healthcare at Home: The Rowan Report since 2008. She has a master’s degree in business administration and marketing and runs Girard Marketing Group, a multi-faceted boutique marketing firm specializing in event planning, sales, and marketing strategy. She has recently taken on the role of Editor of The Rowan Report and will add her voice to current Home Care topics as well as marketing tips for home care agencies. Connect with Kristin directly kristin@girardmarketinggroup.com or www.girardmarketinggroup.com

©2024 by The Rowan Report, Peoria, AZ. All rights reserved. This article originally appeared in Healthcare at Home: The Rowan Report.homecaretechreport.com One copy may be printed for personal use: further reproduction by permission only. editor@homecaretechreport.com

Cyberattack Interrupts Pharmacy Operations

Admin

by Kristin Rowan | Mar 6, 2024 | Admin, CMS, Regulatory, Vendor Watch

By Kristin Rowan, Editor

**March 6, 2024 Update** As the previously reported cyberattack on Change Healthcare continues, the US Department of Health and Human Services issued a statement on March 5, 2024 outlining immediate steps CMS is taking to assist providers. CMS is strongly encouraging Medicaid and CHIP plans to waive or relax prior authorization requirements. They’ve also urged providers to offer advance funding to providers.

According to feedback from NAHC members, the impact of this cyberattack on home health and hospice providers has remained minimal. However, for those experiencing delays in claims processing and payments, some providers are unable to meet payroll or pay for patient care items.

**February 29, 2024 UPDATE** We’ve just been contacted by a home care agency out of Charlotte, NC who told us, “For our home care agency we can’t submit claims for VA clients (ChangeHealthcare [sic] has been totally taken off line), and we aren’t having remittance records from Optum feed through ChangeHealthcare [sic] to Wellsky.”

February 28, 2024

The news broke last week that another cyberattack is impacting healthcare. This time, it is Change Healthcare, a division of UnitedHealth Group, that processes insurance claims and pharmacy requests for more than 340,000 physicians and 60,000 pharmacies. In response to this attack, UnitedHealth Group separated and isolated the effected systems, causing delays in claim payments and backlog pharmacy orders.

The attack was first reported on February 21, 2024 and the outage is still ongoing. Former FBI cyber official and current adviser for cybersecurity and risk at the American Hospital Association warns that the longer this outage persists, the worse it will get and it will start to impact patient care. UnitedHealth Group claims that fewer than 100 pharmacy orders and claims have been interrupted across its insurance and pharmacy plans. But, at least on health insurer is claiming a 40% drop in claims since the system went down.

Source of the Attack

Initially, UnitedHealth Group blamed an unknown “nation state” for the cyberattack. The FBI found no evidence of this and has since named Blackcat ransomware gang culpable in the attack. Blackcat ransomware gang has attacked numerous hospitals and the FBI seized their website and servers in December, 2023. Blackcat accessed the Change Healthcare system through vulnerabilities in the ConnectWise ScreenConnect remote desktop and access software.

Implications

The American Hospital Association has urged all healthcare organizations that work with Optum, Change Healthcare, and UnitedHealth Group to weigh the risk of the connection to Change Healthcare against the possible clinical and business disruptions cased by severing that connection.

Health-ISAC anticipates additional cyberattack victims in the coming days. ConnectWise has alerted its users to the remote code execution flaw and has urged all users to update immediately to prevent attacks.

Point of View

This is not the only story this week about UnitedHealth Group. Backlogged pharmacy orders, healthcare claims, and payments, add further credence to the Antitrust probe filed this week by the Justice Department, investigating UnitedHealth and Optum. Should one healthcare group have this much influence over insurance, physicians, pharmacies, and home care?

# # #

Kristin Rowan has been working at Healthcare at Home: The Rowan Report since 2008. She has a master’s degree in business administration and marketing and runs Girard Marketing Group, a multi-faceted boutique marketing firm specializing in event planning, sales, and marketing strategy. She has recently taken on the role of Editor of The Rowan Report and will add her voice to current Home Care topics as well as marketing tips for home care agencies. Connect with Kristin directly kristin@girardmarketinggroup.com or www.girardmarketinggroup.com

©2024 by The Rowan Report, Peoria, AZ. All rights reserved. This article originally appeared in Healthcare at Home: The Rowan Report.homecaretechreport.com One copy may be printed for personal use: further reproduction by permission only.

editor@homecaretechreport.com

Sources:

Fox. February 22, 2024. Change Healthcare Experiencing a Cyberattack. Retrieved from: https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/change-healthcare-experiencing-cyberattack

Fox. February 27, 2024. Change Healthcare Cyberattack Still Impacting Pharmacies, as H-ISAC Issues Alert. Retrieved from: https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/change-healthcare-cyberattack-still-impacting-pharmacies-h-isac-issues-alert

Pashankar & Tozzi. February 28, 2024. Change Healthcare Cyberattack is Still Disrupting Pharmacies, Other Providers. Retrieved from: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/change-healthcare-cyberattack-still-disrupting-211913516.html

Satter & Bing. February 26, 2024. US Pharmacy Outage Triggered by ‘Blackcat’ Ransomware at UnitedHealth unit, Sources Say. Retrieved from: https://www.reuters.com/technology/cybersecurity/cyber-security-outage-change-healthcare-continues-sixth-straight-day-2024-02-26/

Patient Care in the Palm of Your Hand

Product Review

by Kristin Rowan | Feb 14, 2024 | Product Review, Vendor Watch

By Kristin Rowan, Editor

For those of us who didn’t grow up with a smartphone in our pockets and every tool imaginable available on the internet, mobile apps are still a bit of a mystery and a marvel. There are 25 categories of mobile apps, including gaming, finance, education, business, dating, travel, and health. Development, testing, and execution of an app that actually works is difficult, time consuming, and expensive, so it may seem out of reach for most small businesses. Last week, we spoke with the creators of an app that not only coordinates care for your patients and families, but makes it seem like you have your own agency app.

The Story

Dr. TJ Patel, PT DPT, grew up in India, where he studied physical therapy. After landing his dream job, he started to notice a lot of patients returning to the hospital because they got an infection or just didn’t know how to care for themselves. There was no one providing care after discharge; there was no concept of home based care. Patel soon learned that if he was passionate about home-based care he needed to move to a country that had the infrastructure already built because it didn’t exist there.

Dr. Patel moved to the U.S. and received his masters in kinesiology and doctorate in physical therapy. He was working in home health within a week and did 27,000 home visits in his fifteen year tenure. During this time, Patel noticed that in healthcare, “the right hand does not talk to the left hand.” Communication was a huge pain point and Patel set out remedy that.

By combining care management, care delivery, and what the patient wants into one centralized location, it creates connectivity to all care providers for a patient. Thus, Care Coordinations was designed.

The Concept

Care Coordinations is a tech solution for an impactful experience for patients, caregivers, and families. It opens the lines of communication between the parties customized for each patient.

Patient Channels include all caregivers associated with the patient. Users both inside and outside the organization can be added to the channel. Each patient channel is a secure, private channel for all internal and external care providers. The patient channel can include smaller groups within the channel.

Care Circles include the primary agency caregiver, patients, and family members. The app allows for unlimited two-way communication that protects the personal information of the caregiver. This removes the need for the caregiver to use a personal cell phone or give the patient access to personal information like social media profiles. The two-way communication inside the app is HIPAA compliant, unlike standard text messaging.

Group Channels are non-patient specific for other members of your agency to feel connected, especially in a remote working environment. Department specific group channels for marketing, sales, or HR can also be created. Management functions allow for one-way communication to all employees, anonymous employee surveys, and read-only access to all other channels.

CAHPS Survey

The patient and family experience is captured in the CAHPS survey and impacts agency reimbursement rates. Care Coordinations includes a mock CAHPS survey for patients and families that goes out before the CAHPS survey. The agency can make any needed adjustments to the patient and family experience prior to the actual CAHPS survey, improving scores and reimbursement rates.

Additional Features

Care Coordinations integrates directly with EMRs to upload an episode of care.

Robust read-receipts allow you to see if caregivers have seen a notification inside a communication channel.

Phone and video call capability inside the app adds additional secure communication.

Remote patient monitoring is built in with integrations with more than 500 devices to monitor blood pressure, pulse ox, weight, blood sugar, and temperature.

Direct communication to the agency allows the patient or family to notify the agency in the event a caregiver does not show up for an appointment.

Similar to the user experience with Uber and Lyft, the map feature alerts the patient that the caregiver is in route and estimates time of arrival with a pictogram of a car.

Optional 24/7 functionality to allow the patient to contact the agency after hours. Your call center can input details of the call into the app for real-time updates and assist with reaching other family members in case of an emergency when calling 911 is not necessary.

Post-visit surveys are customizable and can help struggling caregivers to improve and recognize high-performing employees.

The Good, The Bad, and The…Just kidding, there’s nothing ugly

Overall, we found the Care Coordinations app to be useful and well-designed. The app is charged on a per patient basis, making it more cost effective to include multiple care providers in one patient channel for increased connectivity. The available integrations, ability to upload files and videos, HIPAA compliant communication, and familiar messaging structure all point to ease of adoption.

As we’ve noted before, many home health nurses are technology adverse and will fight against the adoption of anything new. Care Coordinations stresses the legality of HIPAA compliant communication and not using your personal cell phone as selling points for nurses. Still, we know this isn’t always enough to convince a steadfast (read stubborn) care provider. Caregiver benefits and a gamified system to track timeliness, survey results, and other metrics may add some incentives for those harder-to-convince nurses.

The Uber-like experience for the patient and family to see where the caregiver is and when they will arrive is a great feature. On the flip-side, there is no tracking of the caregiver on the agency side. With increased reports of workplace violence in home-based care, a feature that allows the caregiver to alert the agency of any change in schedule, without constant tracking of caregiver movements, would allow the caregiver and agency some peace of mind.

I found Care Coordinations to be robust and detailed. Current EMR integrations include Axxess, Kantime, and HomeCare HomeBase, all through Worldview. Direct integrations are in the works. As Care Coordinations adds features and integrations, we are bound to hear more from and about them.

# # #

Kristin Rowan has been working at Healthcare at Home: The Rowan Report since 2008. She has a master’s degree in business administration and marketing and runs Girard Marketing Group, a multi-faceted boutique marketing firm specializing in event planning, sales, and marketing strategy. She has recently taken on the role of Editor of The Rowan Report and will add her voice to current Home Care topics as well as marketing tips for home care agencies. Connect with Kristin directly kristin@girardmarketinggroup.com or www.girardmarketinggroup.com

©2024 by The Rowan Report, Peoria, AZ. All rights reserved. This article originally appeared in Healthcare at Home: The Rowan Report.homecaretechreport.com One copy may be printed for personal use: further reproduction by permission only. editor@homecaretechreport.com

All of our “Meet the CEO” Interviews

Admin

by Tim Rowan | Feb 7, 2024 | Admin, Vendor Watch

by Tim Rowan, Editor Emeritus,

Advertising in The Rowan Report comes with a few perks! Our CEO interview with Tim is one of them. Advertisers with a full-year contract receive one annual CEO interview with Tim. If you’re not an advertiser, CEO interviews can be purchased as well. Highlight the expertise of your leadership with a one-on-one industry overview and company update with Tim, published on The Rowan Report website, social media, and YouTube channel.

Click on these titles to view each episode of our “Meet the CEO” video interview series.

Andre Gomez, Bedrock Healthcare at Home, January 2024

Rich Berner, Complia Health, December, 2022

Emmet O’Gara, Sandata, September, 2022

Roger Shindell, Carosh Compliance Solutions, June, 2022. HIPAA risk assessment workshops

Michael Gelman, CareConnect, May, 2022, Workforce Management

Jim Bland, Seniors Home Services, November, 2021, A menu of products from remote patient monitoring to home modifications, all with revenue sharing for home care partners

Ashley Wharton and Jenna Schwartz, Savii, March, 2021, Private Duty Agency Management Software

Eric Becker, CEO, MiliMatch, on technology to improve recruiting and retention

We are proud to present our 6-part interview with Lindsay Doak, lead researcher for BerryDunn, about their “National Healthcare at Home Best Practices Study.”

Episode I: Overview

Episode II: Staffing Best Practices

Episode III: Hospice Best Practices

Episode IV: Home Health Best Practices
(for audio only, click here)

Episode V: Best Technology Practices
(for audio only, click here)

Episode Vi: Summary and 2023 Preview

# # #

Tim Rowan is a 30-year home care technology consultant who co-founded and served as Editor and principal writer of this publication for 25 years. He continues to occasionally contribute news and analysis articles under The Rowan Report’s new ownership. He also continues to work part-time as a Home Care recruiting and retention consultant. More information: RowanResources.com
Tim@RowanResources.com

©2024 by The Rowan Report, Peoria, AZ. All rights reserved. This article originally appeared in Healthcare at Home: The Rowan Report.homecaretechreport.com One copy may be printed for personal use: further reproduction by permission only. editor@homecaretechreport.com

Triad of Innovation

Clinical

by Kristin Rowan | Jan 24, 2024 | Clinical, Regulatory, Vendor Watch

by Kristin Rowan, Editor

The Arizona Healthcare Cost Containment System (AHCCCS American Rescue Plan (ARP) Program has awarded a grant to a collaborative group of care providers, solutions providers, and educators. On January 18th, Arizona home care agency Cypress HomeCare Solutions announced they have been selected at the recipient of this program award along with solutions provider PocketRN and educator Nevvon. As a team, they will implement services that improve client and provider experiences while also creating health system savings.

In Her Own Words

Last week, we spoke with PocketRN CEO Jenna Morganstern-Gaines. “Nevvon and PocketRN are working with Cypress to implement [the use of] PocketRN by Cypress’s caregivers to study cost of care, experience for clients, families, and the care team, and outcomes,” explained Morganstern-Gaines. She further explained that part of the requirements of the grant is to issue quarterly reports and a final evaluation of the program after one year. They are currently through the first phase of the study, which was to onboard patients, families, and caregivers.

PocketRN is a telehealth platform that engages in “whole person clinical care.” It is a flexible, virtual nursing and clinical service application that wraps clinical care around non-medical care in the home. The use a proactive approach by assigning a virtual nurse to each patient who continues to check in with the patient and the family to provide coaching and assistance and to help coordinate care.

“There’s a real reason we use the phrase ‘nurse you back to health’ and not ‘doctor you back to health’. The person that will help follow through is the nurse and PocketRN provides you a one-to-one relationship with a nurse that will follow through with all of your care providers to ensure that you are ‘nursed’ back to health.”

Jenna Morganstern-Gaines

CEO, PocketRN

We will be following this ongoing study and providing updates from the reports we receive.

# # #

Kristin Rowan has been working at The Rowan Report since 2008. She is the owner and Editor-in-chief of The Rowan Report, the industry’s most trusted source for care at home news .She also has a master’s degree in business administration and marketing and runs Girard Marketing Group, a multi-faceted boutique marketing firm specializing in content creation, social media management, and event marketing. Connect with Kristin directly kristin@girardmarketinggroup.com or www.girardmarketinggroup.com

©2025 by The Rowan Report, Peoria, AZ. All rights reserved. This article originally appeared in The Rowan Report. One copy may be printed for personal use: further reproduction by permission only. editor@therowanreport.com

Principles Provide Insights into HHAeXchange-Gentiva Partnership

Vendor Watch

by Tim Rowan | Nov 15, 2023 | Vendor Watch

by Tim Rowan, Editor Emeritus

In September, we posted the announcement from HHAeXchange about their inking a deal to provide EMR and EVV software to Gentiva Personal Home Care. We had some questions about the partnership and both HHAeXchange president Stephen Vacarro and Gentiva president Richard Bruner took the time to speak with us.

Background and Context

Gentiva Health Services is a provider of Home Health and Hospice services. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company became an independent business unit of Kindred Healthcare in October, 2014. At the time of the acquisition, it had been a Fortune 100 company with over $1.7 billion in annual revenue.

Today, Gentiva provides in-home care to over half a million patients annually through over 420 locations in 40 states.

The Rowan Report: Can you provide an update about Gentiva and your role?

Bruner: Gentiva Health Services is a network of compassionate caregivers, clinicians, support personnel, and information technology teams who provide superior outcomes for patients across the post-acute continuum. Originally part of Olsten Corporation, Gentiva officially became an independent company on Aug. 6, 1999. Our services include personal care, palliative care, and hospice care. Through our personal care offerings, we deliver services to patients across Texas, Arkansas, Arizona, California, North Carolina and Missouri.

Through my role as Gentiva’s personal home care president, I oversee strategic planning for the company’s personal care programs, establish protocols and quality standards, drive key initiatives, build sustainable growth, and am responsible for day-to-day administrative operations.

RR: How did the partnership with HHAeXchange and Gentiva come about?

Bruner: Gentiva connected with HHAeXchange years ago through mutual industry contacts and kept up with the company’s progress. Later, when we began to evaluate our Texas agencies’ need for a new solution, we spent 18 months investigating and vetting major vendors in the homecare management software space.

Seeking a third-party, EVV-agnostic, cloud-based system, we narrowed the pool to two vendors who could meet our company’s needs while enhancing caregivers’ mobile experiences through simplified scheduling and coordination options. However, cost effectiveness and EVV prowess factored heavily into the final decision, which led to our selection of HHAeXchange.

RR: The Texas market is notoriously difficult. How does HHAeXchange differ from previous providers that gave up and left the state?

Vacarro: Texas is a large state with hundreds of thousands of patients receiving homecare on a regular basis from an incredibly broad roster of agencies and providers. While no two situations are alike and no two agencies do things exactly the same way, there is a commonality: the services they provide are incredibly valuable.

Because HHAeXchange understands the complex needs of homecare recipients and the critical work agency staffers are tasked with, we put considerable thought into the development of our EVV platform, its implementation, and its continued usage across Texas. We intend to differentiate ourselves and surpass standards set by our predecessors through our commitment to functionality.

We can’t custom-make solutions based on agencies’ and patients’ individual needs, but we can provide a platform with features versatile enough to be convenient and helpful to any user, no matter their agency size, location, workload, technological expertise or experience.

The HHAeXchange team also understands the importance of laying a solid foundation on which to build a new partnership and preparing for key transitions. So, for months ahead of our launch in Texas, our team spent a considerable amount of time hosting informational sessions for caregivers and agency owners and leading road shows throughout the state, demonstrating the EVV platform, answering questions, and getting more acquainted with the market.

I should add that, as part of our partnership with the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC), our Portal is available at no cost to program providers, financial management services agencies, and Consumer Directed Services (CDS) employers. We’ve taken steps to offer simple and convenient access, enabling homecare providers to easily meet Texas state requirements while offering a streamlined experience for both back-office staff and service providers.

RR: Is HHAeXchange compatible with EVV aggregators in all of the states where Gentiva operates?

Vacarro: Yes, HHAeXchange seamlessly connects payers and providers across the homecare ecosystem. Our platform allows for the accurate capture and transmission of all visit data, regardless of which aggregator a state selects and which EVV vendor and tools a provider uses.

We regularly partner with Medicaid agencies and MCOs in open and closed model states, where our platform is utilized to submit agencies’ data to another aggregator. This is how we work in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and now in Texas, for example.

RR: Thank you, gentlemen. For background on the HHAeXchange-Gentiva partnership, see our September posting of their joint news release at:

Boston’s Partners Home Care Selects ViTel Net Home Telemonitors

Telehealth

by Tim Rowan | Mar 1, 2006 | Telehealth, Vendor Watch

Following a selection process that has gone on for two years but intensified over the last six months, Partners Home Care announced that it has selected McLean, Virginia’s Visual Telecommunications Networks Inc. (ViTel Net) to bring telemonitoring services to the Boston agency’s patients. ViTel Net’s bedside telemonitor, the VitelCare™ Turtle 400, is a light-weight, portable monitoring device that delivers daily vital signs through a standard phone line to clinicians at a central location.

ViTel Net offers telemedicine applications and scalable, remote health monitoring equipment to home care and other healthcare providers. The Washington, DC-area company was founded in 1989. Partners Home Care (PHC) conducted a number of telemonitoring research trials over the last few years (see “Payers Encourage Telehealth Pilots“) that have demonstrated positive results for the agency’s patients. When it came time to select a long-term partner, however, the consensus was to move away from experimental prototypes toward a set of established products.

Partners Home Care is one of New England’s largest non-profit home care providers, providing certified, specialty, and private home care services throughout Eastern Massachusetts. The agency is a member of Boston’s Partners HealthCare, which serves over 140 New England communities. We spoke recently with home care president Marcia Reissig.

“With two years of research and testing prototypes, we knew what patients like and don’t like,” she told HCAR. “Our IS and clinical team that looked at home telehealth vendors kept that in mind as we reviewed a number of devices over the last 18 months. The ViTel Net Turtle stood out for several reasons. We liked its color display against a black background. We thought that would make it easier for older patients to read. And we liked that fact that it displays pictures as well as names and words of medications and medical devices. It was one of the few products we saw that our clinical and IS people both liked.”

Reissig added that the company itself was a factor in the decision, as well as its products. Some monitors that worked well or were otherwise attractive to clinicians were found to have too proprietary a technology foundation or were offered under a too-restrictive business model. “We will need a lot of customization so that our home telehealth system integrates with Partners HealthCare’s intranet and our home care applications,” she explained. “We liked that ViTel Net is privately owned and very engineering-oriented. During the selection phase, they were able to demonstrate some of their adaptation ideas for us, rather than just talk about them, so we felt they are small enough to be responsive to our needs. They were not the least expensive of those we saw but we thought they would fit our needs.”

Home care IT Director Cara Babachicos added that her department was primarily looking for a vendor that would be easy to work with, skilled enough to create complex interfaces to the parent healthcare organization’s sophisticated enterprise systems but flexible enough to customize its products to meet the home care department’s needs. “We already upload patient data to our system-wide dashboard so that Partners physicians can track patients online,” she said. “We want telehealth data to be available there too in order to alert physicians when vitals are problematic and they need to summon early responders to make adjustments.”

The IT Director added that her department’s goal was to find a way that data could be integrated with a server without creating too many data transfer challenges. “Telehealth data will have to be uploaded to a server and from there to Partners’ enterprise system through a firewall without creating problems,” she explained. “ViTel Net seems to have already figured out a way to set up an ISP email account to upload patient results.” The vendor, she added, has also agreed to set up a backup server and to make support available for extended hours in order to help minimize downtime.

Partners has purchased 35 units initially and will grow the program to 125 telemonitors within the next four to six months. The home care division is not separating from the systems’ remote monitoring effort with this vendor selection but will continue to work closely with Partners Telemedicine, a Partners HealthCare department under the direction of Dr. Joseph Kvedar with the mission of connecting healthcare providers and patients around the world through the use of communications technologies. Kvedar’s department will provide resources and expertise to support the home care project. “I speak with Joe at least once a week,” Reissig said. “He has assigned one of his people to home care full time as we get this project going.”

One aspect of the project that will be worth watching over time is one that will be conducted through member hospital Massachusetts General. With funding from Partners HealthCare, it will study the effects of telemonitoring on patients with chronic conditions but who are not homebound and therefore not Medicare-eligible. One of the most significant obstacles to home telehealth adoption is that the monitoring device must be removed from the home at the end of a Medicare episode, regardless of the fact that leaving it there would help to prevent the need for future episodes or even re-hospitalizations. If the Mass General study can prove cost savings from monitoring non-homebound patients, it may eventually influence DHHS or Congress to reconsider the way it funds home care services.
http://www.vitelnet.com
http://www.partnershomecare.org