by Rowan Report | Feb 20, 2025 | Admin, Clinical, CMS, Regulatory
by Hannah Vale, CMO HealthRev Partners
Care at Home Industry Faces Perfect Storm
Industry Challenges in 2025
The care at home industry is grappling with an unprecedented crisis as staffing shortages, technological hurdles, and complex reimbursement models converge to create significant operational challenges. Industry experts warn that without immediate intervention, patient care could be severely impacted.
Staffing Crisis Reaches Critical Levels
The staffing shortage in home health care has intensified dramatically since the COVID-19 pandemic. Carole Carlson, Registered Nurse (RN), Administrator at Avant Home Care, is a veteran with 36 years of experience in the field. She reports unprecedented difficulty in recruiting registered nurses.
“We’re seeing a mass exodus of healthcare workers who have found remote work alternatives. This exodus has also led to a significant caregiver shortage, causing a decline in non-skilled care services.”
Administrator, Avant Home Care
“The other issue is the RN shortage. This is our first time ever experiencing an RN shortage. We are not even getting applicants, whereas in the past we have always had nurses apply and were able to hire within a relatively short period of time,” Carlson added.
Michael Greenlee, Founder and CEO of HealthRev Partners, notes that the shortage is systemic, with insufficient new workers entering the field to meet growing demand. The situation is particularly dire in rural areas, where agencies face additional challenges in attracting and retaining staff.
Connectivity Issues on Top of Documentation Burden
The documentation requirements for home health care are proving to be a major source of burnout among nurses. Pointedly, in rural areas, the problem is exacerbated by poor connectivity:
- Many patients still rely solely on landlines
- Large areas lack cell coverage
- Limited or no WiFi access is common
These issues often force nurses to complete documentation after hours, significantly impacting their work-life balance. Greenlee suggests that emerging satellite connectivity solutions could potentially address these issues in the future.
Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems, while essential, present their own set of challenges. Agencies find that basic systems require multiple costly add-ons for full functionality.
Carlson identifies several gaps in current EMR systems:
- Lack of built-in HIPAA-compliant dictation capabilities
- Limited care plan template libraries requiring extensive manual input
- Need for multiple add-ons to achieve full functionality
These limitations are forcing agencies to invest in additional software solutions, further straining already tight budgets.
Medicare Advantage Complicates Operations
The growing prevalence of Medicare Advantage plans is adding another layer of complexity to home health care operations. In one agency’s case, Medicare Advantage patients now represent 30% of their 160-patient census, equal to traditional Medicare patients. Each Medicare Advantage plan comes with different requirements, creating a significant administrative burden for agencies.
“Keeping up with the varying billing requirements across plans is a constant challenge for our small staff,” Carlson notes. “The need to maintain efficient workflows with clearinghouse and software updates for different payers is putting additional strain on already stretched resources”
As the care at home industry navigates these multifaceted challenges, experts stress the urgent need for comprehensive solutions to ensure the continued delivery of quality care to an aging population increasingly preferring to receive treatment at home.
Hannah Vale, M.Ed. is a dynamic leader bringing a wealth of experience and marketing innovation to her role at HealthRev Partners. Hannah is dedicated to helping post acute agencies streamline processes, optimize reimbursement, and embrace tech-driven solutions. She is recognized as an advocate for empowering agencies with the tools and knowledge they need to drive successful growth. A lifelong learner and former educator turned entrepreneur with a proven track record in launching and scaling businesses, passionate about creating impactful strategies that unite purpose and business. Hannah is also the co-host of the Home Health Revealed podcast, where she discusses industry insights and shares stories from experts in all things pertaining to home health, hospice, and palliative care. Hannah holds a Bachelors Degree in Education from Cleveland State University and a Masters in Educational Leadership from Evangel University.
©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
by Kristin Rowan | May 2, 2024 | Product Review
by Kristin Rowan, Editor
Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) addresses several pain points for care at home agencies: coding errors, timely reimbursement payments, and employee workload. Available as both full-service and SaaS products, RCM automation offers higher reimbursement rates, lower overhead costs, and overall better efficiency for your agency. Not having a RCM tool leaves your agency at higher risk for nonpayment, audits, and lengthy revenue cycles that impede your ability to manage your agency’s revenue.
Last week, I had the opportunity to talk with Michael Greenlee, Founder and CEO of HealthRev Partners. Hannah Vale, Chief Strategy Officer, joined him on the call. They told me about the HealthRev Partners’ launch of their new RCM tool, Velocity.
About HealthRev Partners
HealthRev Partners offers OASIS & POC Review and Coding assistance to home health, hospice, and palliative care agencies. The partnership program starts with an initial telephone conference, followed by a live review of documentation with an OASIS expert with recommendations for accuracy and compliance. Additionally, they have a precepting partnership program to enhance clinician performance and documentation practices. The RN guided program offers OASIS documentation review and correction sessions to ensure accurate and compliant documentation. Their solutions aim to maximize reimbursements with faster turnaround and higher accuracy.
HealthRev Partners Launches Velocity
On April 1, 2024, HealthRev Partners announced the launch of a new SaaS solution for Revenue Cycle Management, Velocity. HealthRev Partners designed Velocity to transform RCM for multi-site agencies. In addition to RCM, the tool offers operational insights for optimization and growth. Velocity focuses on real-time analytics and operational efficiency by centralizing data between locations. If you have an in-house RCM team, Velocity can be a stand-alone SaaS. However, if you need it, it can also be a full-service solution with outsourced coding and RCM experts on the Velocity team.
About Velocity
According to Michael Greenlee, many agencies lack tracking of their aging accounts receivable and the status of their claims. Without these, agencies can be leaving hundreds of thousands of dollars stuck in the revenue cycle without ever getting reimbursement from the claim. Velocity works with any existing EMR to pull data from coding and billing information. The built-in quality assurance (QA) solution is automated and customizable for charting and documentation. HealthRev Partners launched Velocity to help agencies overcome some of the pain points agencies have with RCM, billing, and coding.
Features
- Productivity and Accountability Reporting: Whether using Velocity as an outsourced solution or SaaS, instantly see time-stamped productivity reports, accuracy reports, and clinician QA scoring
- Ai powered tracking: All claims in the 61-90 day and over 90 day segments are brought into the system for tracking with a follow-up reminder for each claim, payment information, and reasons for nonpayment.
- Claims forecasting: Velocity shows the current financial status of the agency, and with enough data in the system, can provide revenue forecasts simply by entering a future date into the reporting system.
- Pre-built database: All charting codes are built into the system and are searchable by keyword or phrase to reduce coding errors and increase reimbursement rates
- Platform agnostic: For many agencies, switching to a different EMR system costs more than the sticker price on the solution. With Velocity, there is no loss of data because it holds previous EMR data when you switch.
- Advanced Funding: Partners with Velocity have access to their AR funds before claims are processed, with an immediate credit line of up to $100,000, or 80% of the agencies AR.
Differentiation
Whether you need a software solution for your in-house RCM team or are looking to outsource your billing and coding to a partner, choosing the right RCM team is essential for your success. With so many RCM companies available in the market, it can be difficult to choose the right one. To choose the right RCM partner, there are a few factors to consider:
How does the solution or company match with the mission and vision I have for my agency?
HealthRev Partners has an “aspiration to develop innovative solutions that create boundless opportunities for our clients to advance their mission.”
Does the solution have the right tools for my success?
The analytics tools in Velocity can by customized to each agency’s KPIs. Velocity offers a fully supported software solution, a SaaS solution, and everything in-between to provide each agency with the level of support they need to succeed. Clinician productivity reports calculate clinician reimbursement by month. This shows which of your clinicians needs additional training and which should be recognized for their achievements, which can help to decrease your turnover rates. Velocity will custom build additional dashboards and measurements, included in the cost of the software.
Is the software solution safe for my agency and my clients?
Velocity is a HIPAA secure platform and is undergoing SOC-2 certification to protect your organization and the privacy of your patients.
Does the software partner have my best interests in mind?
Have you ever talked to someone who is so passionate about what they do that their energy is contagious? That was my experience in talking with Michael Greenlee, CEO and Founder of HealthRev Partners. Our one-hour scheduled software review meeting turned into a two hour conversation about what Velocity is designed to achieve. We also talked about how much potential it has to help home health, hospice, and palliative care agencies to survive.
Greenlee’s goal for Velocity is to have 0 claims go past 90 days for any agency they work with. They train each of their team members to meet the needs of an individual customer before they touch the account. HealthRev Partners offers “white glove service” to make good agencies great and to help partners dominate their marketplace. Michael partners with agencies he believes in as much as he believes in his own company. “We’re passionate about securing success for home health, hospice, and palliative care agencies across the nation.”
Future Considerations
Michael, Hannah, and I talked at length about what might be possible with Velocity. (So much so that Hannah asked if I was available to attend their next planning meeting.) AI capabilities are evolving and maturing at a rapid rate. Generative AI will become the standard for software solutions in care at home in short order. Michael’s passion for elevating the efficiency and prosperity of his home health, hospice, and palliative care agency partners will undoubtedly lead to even more innovation. Hannah Vale offered, “Our goal is to further enhance the sophistication of the AI. We consistently heed client feedback to creatively address their evolving requirements.”
To book a demo with HealthRev Partners, click here.
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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. Additionally, 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
