Hello!
Welcome to the July 2010 issue of THE PATHFINDER.
Ah yes! It is the hazy, crazy, lazy days of summer (http://tinyurl.com/2dzsko9)
...well , maybe not always hazy or lazy, but as the decisions continue to come out of Washington, there are certainly crazy days!
I have had the good fortune to attend two great conferences in the last month. The first was a seminar on Health Care Reform and Other New Realities Facing Healthcare Industry Employers sponsored by Baker and McKenzie. Topics ranged from union activity to wage and hour issues to the need for social media policy and employee guidance for employers, but it was in the area, simply identified on the agenda as Health Trends, that the room was electrified. The speaker was Tom Emerick, Chief Strategy Officer for Laurus Strategies. He had a riveting presentation with challenging observations. Some of his thoughts included:
• Healthcare reform costs have been dramatically under estimated and will cost 8X the original forecast because the government projections were not done using dynamic forecasting methods.
• Large employers, when required to insure all employees, may choose to "pay" the fines rather than "play" with the higher cost of insurance.
• Employers will look for medical travel opportunities in order to control the cost of complicated procedures.
The second conference was the Homecare and Hospice Financial Manager Association meeting. It was a wonderful conference bringing together financial gurus and agency ownership to learn from one another. The top topics were compliance and preparation for funding reductions. Everyone is aware that appropriate assessment and complete, thorough documentation are key to survival in this era of investigative Federal contractors.
In this month's edition of the Pathfinder, I am including an article that follows up on our discussion last month on sales training and focus (The Cookie Lady is Dead, To read the article again, please click here) with a article by Elizabeth Hogue, Esq. on potential changes to our relationship with referring physicians. PhRMA, a trade association whose
members are pharmaceutical research and biotechnology companies, recently updated its Marketing Code. Although
the Code applies only to members of PhRMA who voluntarily agree to follow it, the Code has helped providers to understand changing standards regarding acceptable marketing practices.
The second article is one that I feel will benefit hospices. Just as sometimes home health agencies struggle with the homebound status requirement, hospices also sometimes have difficulty with understanding the need for a patient to meet eligibility criteria while also being appropriate for hospice care. Norma Hirsch, our guest author this month, is the Medical Director for the Hospice of Central Iowa. This article reflects a number of our discussions when I had the privilege of working alongside her while on assignment. I appreciate her generosity in writing this article for this newsletter.
Lastly, as you know, we assist organizations to get ready for Accreditation Commission for Health Care (ACHC) accreditation surveys. The latest ACHC newsletter highlights an article written by Beth Carpenter on the topic of maintaining margin. You can find the article at http://tinyurl.com/2bs75vu.
Once we pass the 4th of July holiday it seems that we are on the down slope to autumn. Enjoy every sunny, warm day by finding the time to take a walk, ride your bike or feel some sand between your toes!
If we can provide you with any assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Best wishes, Beth Carpenter
“Let us realize that the privilege to work is a gift, that the power to work is a blessing, that the love of work is success.” David O. McKay |
