Avoiding a Bust: Palliative Care ROI
As the healthcare landscape evolves, interest in palliative care continues to grow, but the business case can be elusive. Join us to explore approaches to quantifying the bottom line impact of palliative care, and learn about barriers to success in achieving a positive ROI for this service line.
Avoiding Ocean’s Eleven: Protecting Your Data on a Budget
One of the most challenging aspects of running an agency is keeping your agency’s data protected. Between government regulations like HIPAA, HITECH, PCI, and ISO standards, as well as the cyber criminals agencies face today, it can be a full-time job. This session will show you how to take proactive steps toward protecting and securing your data while working on a budget that is often the leanest in your organization. We will discuss tools and processes that help agencies that host their data, as well as agencies that use a cloud EMR provider, and ways that you can teach your staff to be more cybersecurity-minded so that they aren’t inadvertently the cause of a data breach or ransomware attack.
Betting on Employee Retention in Home Health & Hospice
Dealing with workforce challenges is an ongoing issue for providers. The key for maximizing the ROI is to focus on retention. This session will help guide your decision making around compensation, professional development, growth potential for staff, and company culture, all of which affect staff retention.
Creating a Full House: Effective Collaboration between Finance & Clinical Management
In this era of minimal increases from Medicare and the ongoing transition of Medicare eligible individuals to Medicare Advantage plans, you cannot afford to gamble on your financial performance. Join this session to learn key metrics to ensure your agency has a winning hand when it comes to aligning your clinical and financial outcomes.
Diversifying Payor Sources in Private Duty Home Care
Amid economic challenges and shifts in private pay hours, this session delves into strategic approaches for home care agencies to broaden their revenue streams by tapping into alternative payor sources. Explore the opportunities presented by programs such as the VA, Long-Term Care (LTC) insurances, Medicaid, and Medicare Advantage. Discover practical insights to navigate complexities, maximize reimbursement potential, and mitigate reliance on private pay hours. This session aims to equip attendees with actionable strategies to diversify payor sources effectively and fostering financial resilience in private duty home care agencies.
Ensuring Safety: Invest in the Well-being of Your Staff
In home-based care, the safety of your staff is vital. As the industry evolves, so do the challenges that accompany providing healthcare within patients' homes. Investing in the safety of your home-based care staff is an investment in the quality of care provided, caregiver satisfaction and retention, and the overall success of your healthcare organization. By prioritizing safety you create an environment where both staff and patients can thrive. This session will include a panel of experienced providers who will discuss ways to mitigate environmental risks by implementing protocols to address common safety concerns.
Evolving Compensation Strategies in 2024
Explore the evolving landscape of compensation strategies in home care. This session delves into industry shifts imperative for securing financial stability for caregivers. Engage in discussions that equip you with strategic insights to adapt and thrive in the ever-changing financial landscape of home care. Discover insights and tools to recalibrate compensation strategies to ensure financial stability for caregivers and agencies alike.
Hit or Stand? Pros and Cons of Centralizing, Outsourcing and Offshoring Operations
As costs continue to rise and margins continue to shrink, organizations are constantly challenged to try to do more with less. To control costs and maximize operational efficiency, agencies are exploring options to centralize certain back-office functions or even consider outsourcing. Other agencies have made the decision to offshore rather than keep staff domestically. Agencies are also looking at AI as a potential killer app to reduce their overall efficiency. Big decisions and changes within your organization require a SWOT analysis to understand and evaluate the right options for your organization. This session will cover the risks, benefits, and potential financial impact of making a change as well as the organizational impact of each option.
Home Health Benchmarking & Budgeting
Home health agencies are facing many challenges including insufficient payment rate increases, margin compression, workforce shortages, and changes in payer mix. Benchmarking and budgeting are two management tools that can help drive strategy and operational plans for success. To use these tools successfully, it is critical that your benchmarks are used to identify opportunities and the budget development process contemplates all the challenges and opportunities for your organization and how your leadership team plans to address those challenges and opportunities to ensure a thriving future. Ongoing monitoring of your actual results compared to the targeted benchmarks and budgets is just as important as the initial development to help leadership in pivoting when you find yourself off track from the benchmarks and/or budget. This session will present an overview of the processes for using benchmarks to help develop the initial budgets as well as the ongoing monitoring suggested. The session will also address how these tools can be used to help in decision support in helping drive strategy and operational success.
Home Health Regulatory Update: Preparing Agencies for the Future
Welcome to the Home Health Regulatory session, where we delve into the intricate legal and regulatory landscape and explore the critical aspects of understanding and navigating the current regulatory framework governing Home Health services. From decoding the Social Security Act's impact on our industry to deciphering key terminology embedded in the Final Rules, this presentation aims to equip participants with the knowledge needed to respond effectively, seek assistance judiciously, and optimize their approach within the regulatory landscape. Join us on this informative journey to empower yourself with the knowledge and skills needed to thrive in the dynamic Home Health Regulatory environment. Whether you are a seasoned professional or new to the industry, this presentation promises valuable insights to elevate your understanding and practice within the regulatory landscape.
Home Health Revenue Cycle: Evaluating Processes & Performance
Home health revenue cycle performance is a key indicator of operational and financial health. Staff turnover, shifts in payer mix, volume fluctuations, regulatory changes, and evolving technology performance are everyday threats to revenue cycle performance. Identifying and resolving poor processes at each point in the revenue cycle is critical to achieving optimal performance. This session will focus on identifying best practices throughout the revenue cycle, including front-end processes such as intake and authorizations, middle processes, such as documentation management, and back-end processes of billing and collecting. This session will also explore the impacts on the revenue cycle due to Medicare Advantage, Medicare Targeted Probe and Educate (TPE) and the Review Choice Demonstration (RCD). Benchmarks for measuring revenue cycle performance will also be reviewed.
Hospice Benchmarking and Budget: Don’t Roll the Dice on Your Hospice Operations
The plan for financial success begins with a budget preferably one that is based in achievable and actionable KPIs. Too often Agencies take the easy way out with their approach to benchmarking and budgeting which can leave them with less chips at the table and without any face cards. As hospice agencies face continued regulatory and potential reimbursement changes there becomes pressure to achieve sustainable financial results while also meeting and exceeding quality standards. One way to manage performance is through targeted analytics and KPIs as we cannot manage what we don’t measure. It is also important to recognize that there can be a disconnect or language barrier between clinical and financial teams and KPIs can improve both transparency and communication. When used effectively in conjunction with the budget KPIs can help hospices by highlighting strengths, identifying potential opportunities, and alerting them to areas of financial concern. This session will review the KPIs every hospice agency should be considering in their budget assumptions and ongoing monitoring of financial and operational performance.
Hospice Revenue Cycle: The Powerful Impact of Compliance Risks
The hospice landscape continues to evolve under the Special Focus Program, increasing frequency of Targeted Probe and Educate (TPE) and other program integrity audits, and the evolving Value-Based Insurance Design (VBID). These issues, along with everyday challenges related to nursing facility room and board and Medicaid managed care organizations, present ongoing challenges to revenue cycle performance. This session will provide attendees with an update on the latest billing and payment issues while examining actionable strategies for optimizing revenue cycle process management and resulting cash flow while mitigating compliance risks. This session will also explore the latest information related to VBID and evolving compliance issues impacting the revenue cycle, including TPE. Industry benchmarks for key performance indicators will also be shared to allow attendees to assess revenue cycle performance.
Hospice Under the CMS Review Microscope
Hospice continues to be under the watchful eye of CMS as the new Hospice Special Focus Program (SFP) starts Q4 of CY2024. Tracking your HQRP scores will be imperative along with your CAHPS Hospice star ratings, as you navigate the scrutiny of CMS. Join our speakers as they provide a background on the HQRP programs and the best ways to monitor and improve your scores.
Managing Payor Mix Impact on Your Home Health Agency
With the increase in referrals but the lack of availability of staff it has become challenging for an agency to grow and positively impact the bottom line. In the ever-changing landscape of payers, organizations must maintain their focus on how growth in different markets, or by referral sources, will impact their payer mix. This includes utilizing internal and external data when evaluating the financial impact on any growth decision. This session will discuss strategies, reporting, and execution of developing a growth plan that accounts for maintaining a payer mix that will result in a positive bottom line.
Maximizing Employee Recruitment & Retention Using Data & Financial Analysis
Unlock the potential of your team. Impact employee engagement. Bolster recruitment and reduce turnover. Working in silos is less efficient than bringing operational and financial minds together. It's time to unite. In this session, we will address the common challenges faced by organizations, such as the ambiguity surrounding what to measure, and how to measure it. Using pivotal workforce metrics can catalyze meaningful change. Gain valuable insights into identifying and utilizing key metrics and benchmarks to hold your team accountable, fostering a culture of continuous improvement, and ultimately steering your organization towards optimal workforce health.
Medicaid: Does Your Agency Have all the Payors to make a Full House?
Do you have interest in Medicaid but aren't sure whether to participate? Are you scared off by rumors of low reimbursements? Do you want to know more about the program to better manage your own Medicaid-funded services? If so, this session is for you! Join experts in the Medicaid program who will discuss strategies for implementing and operating a successful Medicaid program, including operations that are viable and sustainable in their own right as well as strategies to leverage Medicaid to improve referrals from other sources.
Medicare Advantage Part 1: Payor Success & Contracting
Home Health has seen a dramatic shift in payer mix towards Medicare Advantage. It has become critical to ensure financial success to be able to manage your Medicare Advantage contracts and relationships. This involves an internal evaluation of current revenue and costs and communication of a value proposition to the payer. This session will establish best practices for organizations as they prepare and enter into Medicare Advantage agreements.
Medicare Advantage Part 2: Operational & Financial Analysis
For Home Health organizations when Medicare Advantage contract is executed that is just the beginning as there are many steps involved from intake to billing that need to occur to align the final claim and settlement of value-based performance with the contract’s payment requirements. These steps are not only limited to processes but also reporting, key performance indicators, and financials budgets. This session will prepare an agency to operationalize payer contracts ensuring timely collections, favorable revenue yield, and financial success in value-based contracting.
Navigating Hospice Medical Reviews in 2024
Explore the latest guidance surrounding governmental and non-governmental payor audits and investigative initiatives related to hospice medical review process and hospice eligibility. Gain valuable insights into best practices for successfully navigating medical reviews, technical denials with hospice documentation including CTIs as well as election statements and the financial implications of these medical reviews. Receive practical guidance on what actions to take and avoid when confronted with these critical audits.
Optimizing Budgets in Private Duty Home Care: KPIs & Benchmarking Strategies
Discover the power of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and benchmarking in navigating the financial landscape of private duty home care. Learn how to effectively utilize data-driven insights to drive budgetary decisions, enhance operational efficiency, and achieve sustainable growth. Explore practical strategies and best practices to align KPIs with budgeting goals, empowering your agency to thrive in a dynamic healthcare environment. This session aims to equip attendees with the knowledge and tools needed to leverage KPIs and benchmarking effectively, providing a competitive edge in navigating the financial landscape of private duty home care.
Playing Craps with Value-Based Purchasing: Play the Field to Win
With less than one year under the HHVBP expanded model, CMS is already making changes starting in the third year of the expansion. Measures are being retired and new ones added. How should agencies be preparing for this latest changes? Join our speakers as they share insights to the model updates and how to improve your Total Performance Scores (TPS).
Playing with a Full Deck: What Innovative Payment & Delivery Models are Available?
If you aren't leading, you're following. This session will teach you how to identify information about new care models and payment approaches that serve Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries. This session will assist you in synching up with CMS to get ahead of where they are going and help your organization be a trailblazer in value-based care.
Serving Dual Eligibles: Strategies to Ensure Success
Serving individuals with both Medicare and Medicaid eligibility (referred to as Dual Eligibles) poses unique challenges and opportunities for providers. This session will provide a foundational understanding of the Dual Eligible population demographics, Medicare and Medicaid spending trends, scan of regulatory considerations and value-based contracting opportunities. Speakers will also address the growing presence of Dual Eligible Special Needs Plans and how they impact home care service coverage, reimbursement, value-based care models, and revenue cycle strategies.
Shuffling the Deck: Merge, Acquire, or Partner: What is Right for You?
The U.S. Healthcare Industry continues to evolve at an ever-accelerating pace. Providers of all types, and now Payors as well, are seeking various delivery alternatives including mergers, acquisitions, and joint venture arrangements in order to best execute their strategy in a marketplace increasingly focused on value-based care. Some are choosing to exit completely. All transactions are based upon risk and reward. We will explore recent market trends which led to high volumes in 2021 bridging to today’s current environment. We will also discuss the outlook and predictions for projected M&A activity in the next 12 months. This session will focus on the different delivery options available to a buyer and seller along with explanations for each, reasons for success and causes of failure.
State Medicaid Payment Policies: Finance Payment Rates & Managed Care
Since every state uses a different method to establish their service reimbursements, Medicaid payment rates are often complex, confusing, and misunderstood. When managed care organizations are added to the mix, the structure becomes even more complex. This session will begin to unpack the different ways that states set rates, manage care financing, and influence provider payments.
Strategies for Hospice Reimbursement Management
Under the Medicare hospice per diem payment model, it may be perceived that there isn’t much strategy to make sure you are getting the proper payments for your hospice services. There are, however, several areas for which agency leadership should consider to make sure your agency is getting proper reimbursement without unnecessary limitation. The number of Medicare-certified hospice agencies that exceed the aggregate hospice payment cap each year has been trending up. Other areas of potential lost reimbursement opportunities include utilization of the four levels of care and the service intensity add-on, as well as proper billing for Medicaid room and board for hospice nursing facility residents. This session is intended to provide attendees with a general understanding and success strategies for the hospice cap and other key hospice reimbursement matters that may be missed.
Value-Based Purchasing Insurance Design (VBID): The Road Ahead!
The Medicare Advantage Value-Based Insurance Design (VBID) Hospice Benefit Component demonstration entered Phase 4 January 2024. In a shocking turn of events, the VBID Hospice Carve-In is set to end December 31, 2024. Most MA Organizations have chosen to volunteer participation for at least one of their MA Benefit Plan Packages, which makes Hospice Care among their benefit offerings. This session will provide a deep dive into key elements of the model, including various hospice providers’ experience under the model, key considerations related to contracting with MA plans as an in-network hospice provider and what providers that are out of network must consider. Lessons learned during this demonstration will be a focus as well as what involvement of Medicare Advantage is expected for hospices in the future.