No one was more prepared to fill the top seat at CommonSpirit Health at Home than Trisha Crissman.

Crissman had served as interim president of CommonSpirit Health at Home since 2023, and last week, the company announced that she would take helm of the company as the official president and CEO.

In many ways, Crissman has had a front row seat to the evolution of CommonSpirit Health. She has been with the organization since early 2015.

Crissman served as vice president and chief operating officer for home health and hospice at CHI Health at Home, a former iteration of the company.

CommonSpirit Health at Home is headquartered in Milford, Ohio. It offers specialized home care, home infusion, hospice and medical transportation services nationwide. CommonSpirit Health at Home operates 83 locations across 13 states. The company serves as the home-based care arm of health system CommonSpirit Health. 

As a veteran of the organization, Crissman was immediately prepared to get the ball rolling on CommonSpirit Health at Home’s strategic priorities, which include becoming a dynamic and future-facing home-based care partner and provider.

Crissman recently caught up with Home Health Care News to discuss that topic and much more, including her other role at the National Alliance for Care at Home.

HHCN: You stepped into the role of CEO at CommonSpirit Health at Home very recently. As CEO, what are your priorities, specifically within home-based care?

Crissman: Although this has been a role that I’ve been kind of serving in jointly – as the chief operating officer – for about 15 months, I’m excited to be in this new role.

As the largest Catholic home-based services provider in the country, and as a national service line for the larger CommonSpirit Health organization, our priorities are and will always be intimately tied to the needs of our larger organization, as well as the joint venture partnerships that we support in our communities. This really translates to honing in on strategies that serve our partner hospitals as they continue to look for any and all ways to create bed capacity to care for more patients in the community, who are in need of acute care and intervention. That means driving reduced length of stay through earlier discharge home, ED diversion tactics and SNF-at-home — those are just some of the solutions that support our partners. These strategic solutions, as well as others, will continue to be a focus for health at home well into the future.

Alongside this is also the need for health at home to continue to focus on creating clinical capacity internally, in order for us to be able to care for the increased demand of patients being discharged out of these partners’ hospitals, as well as ensuring that CommonSpirit Health at Home is the employer of choice in our communities.

This means making sure that we’re offering competitive compensation and an opportunity for our employees to work within an organization that’s committed to serving humanity, in what I believe is this very noble and sacred way, and to find a strong sense of purpose and belonging in doing so. In other words, continuing to drive high levels of engagement with our employees by connecting them deeply to our culture. This is, and will remain, a top priority. It is the bedrock for any other strategic priorities that we’re embracing. We have to get that right if we’re going to do anything else successfully.

How does being a long-time member of CommonSpirit’s leadership team prepare you to take the helm as CEO?

Aligning our ministries as one CommonSpirit took place in early 2019, so I’ve had the fortunate opportunity to be a part of that early five-year work of assimilating these very large organizations culturally. From a strategic planning standpoint, I’ve gotten to know local leadership in the markets, as well as the newly formed executive leadership team at CommonSpirit Health, under the leadership of Wright Lassiter III, who has been in his role for a little over two years now.

I really feel like the last five years have been an immersion into the visioning and the creation of the organization that we are still becoming as CommonSpirit Health. There’s been significant effort around really prioritizing what it is that the larger organization needs to do to be successful … the focus on organic growth and leveraging our size with payers and with vendors, and creating this customer-focused patient experience, digital branding. Some of those top priorities I’ve been able to be a part of from the very beginning, and engage health at home, vertically and horizontally, in the right places, with the right leaders, to make sure that we can be the best supportive partner in our markets across the enterprise.

From just a high level, I would say, I feel very fortunate and well-prepared relationally and from a connectivity standpoint, to take this expanded role further.

As a new CEO, is there a program, pilot, or type of partnership that you’re hoping to implement, or go after, that hasn’t been done at CommonSpirit Health at Home?

We’re constantly looking at the right partnerships, particularly with regional health care systems, because this is kind of in our acumen. It’s what we’re evolved to be really good at, and it helps us diversify our portfolio over time as well.

But I would say, there’s still an opportunity to evaluate the needs of what I would call the expanding ecosystem for post-acute care that I’ve referred to in various conversations as kind of this proverbial jump ball. As the need for care in the home is expanded, and pushed out of an acute setting, and into the home, the right ecosystem needs to be there in order to ensure that it’s successful. Whether that’s medical house calls or personal care or behavioral health or laboratory services. There’s a wide variety of services that will be required in the home, that in some ways are there now, but have yet to be really defined, I think, solidly.

I don’t necessarily think that CommonSpirit Health at Home would be looking to buy or build those capabilities, but looking at how we could create strategic partnerships to be able to provide those services, to further expand the care in the home ecosystem, so that those patients can be discharged sooner, or possibly maybe even avoid a hospitalization.

We’re looking at what those right strategic partnerships might look like for CommonSpirit Health at Home well into the future, and certainly our ability to be agile and respond to what those increasing needs are.

JV partnerships have been important for the company. What types of companies are you looking to partner with in the future?

We benefit greatly from partnering with really strong regional health systems, and our most recent JV with Parkview Health is a really great example of that.

It’s not uncommon for health systems to kind of evolve and diversify their portfolio over time to meet the needs of the patients that they’re serving, especially as more care is being transitioned from facility-based settings to the home.

Oftentimes, I think that partnerships with the right organization, like CommonSpirit Health at Home, can provide the required scale and focus, expertise, leadership, tools and resources that are vital to successfully managing and expanding non-acute operations like home health and hospice.

We benefit from the partnerships because we can leverage the perspective, the cultures and the best-in-class practices that those organizations bring into the relationship, and as a result, we become a stronger, more versatile, well-rounded organization. Most importantly, when we partner with regional health systems, we wind up finding pretty amazing leaders to join our team, and that expands our collective acumen and capabilities. We evolve and grow together, and we’re better together as a result of our joint ventures. The partnerships that we form are, it’s worth mentioning, some of the best-performing entities and locations across our platform, and the reason is that we have mutually agreed upon commitments to ensure that we achieve the goals of the agency, and that we align the strategies that are of our business plan.

It’s not just CommonSpirit Health at Home as a managing partner, it’s the partnership as an entity with key stakeholders within the health system that can help us be successful, make introductions, and help us strategize and problem solve. Then everyone wins.

Aside from CommonSpirit, you also serve on the board of the NAHC-NHPCO National Alliance for Care at Home. Can you talk a little bit about this?

This has been the evolution of several years of really, really deep trench work with key leaders across the industry.

I feel so honored and privileged to be a part of it from its grassroots beginning, and our leaders have been really thoughtful around crafting the right organization to lead this industry forward, and really intent on our mission and values. We’ve spent a significant amount of time searching for leadership, and we’re excited that that was just recently announced.

I think that the hard work now begins. This new board will begin the hard work of making sure that there is no stone unturned that needs our attention in our industry, for not just home health, hospice, or palliative care, but all care that could be provided in the home. It’s a very exciting time, and I have learned an immense amount from amazing leaders that I have walked alongside through this process. I feel really humbled and privileged to be a part of the important work shaping our future.

The post CommonSpirit Health at Home’s New CEO On Winning The ‘Proverbial Jump Ball’ In Home-Based Care appeared first on Home Health Care News.

Trisha Crissman will step into the role, having served as interim president of CommonSpirit Health at Home since October 2023.

“Trisha’s leadership has been instrumental in Health at Home’s success, and she will continue to drive growth, performance, innovation and strategic direction for CommonSpirit Health at Home as she takes on this new role,” Terika Richardson, senior vice president and chief operating officer of CommonSpirit Health, said in a press statement.

CommonSpirit Health at Home is headquartered in Milford, Ohio. It offers specialized home care, home infusion, hospice and medical transportation services nationwide. CommonSpirit Health at Home operates 83 locations across 13 states.

Before serving as interim president, Crissman was CommonSpirit Health at Home’s vice president and COO. She first joined CommonSpirt in 2015, after serving as vice president of AccentCare’s hospice segment.

Crissman also serves on the board of the NAHC-NHPCO National Alliance for Care at Home.

In her new role at CommonSpirit Health at Home, Crissman will be at the forefront as the company focuses on expansion opportunities.

“I am honored and humbled to have the opportunity to serve in this expanded role to advocate for and champion the highest levels of quality care in the home across the country, and to strive to care for more people in need of our specialized services each and every day, especially for those who are most vulnerable in our society,” she said in the press statement. “As a part of CommonSpirt Health, I am committed to finding meaningful ways to leverage our organization’s size, scale and expertise to positively impact our industry’s influence and decision-making at the most important levels, both in Washington, DC, and in our local home towns.”

Most recently, CommonSpirit Health at Home announced the formation of a joint venture to provide home-based care across northeast Indiana with Parkview Health.

The post CommonSpirit Health at Home Names New President And CEO appeared first on Home Health Care News.

Dover expands footprint

Dover Health is expanding its footprint into Illinois. The company has acquired Centered Care Hospice and Palliative Care, and Cornerstone Home Health.

Through the acquisitions, Dover Health will now serve Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Grundy, Kane, Kankakee, Kendall, Lake and Will counties in Illinois.

Dover Health is a health care organization that offers a variety of services, as well as home health, hospice and palliative care. Currently, the company operates in St. Louis, Jefferson, St. Charles, Franklin and Lincoln counties in Missouri.

“Our leaders bring decades of experience and a mission-focused approach, ensuring that we invest in our caregiving team so they can deliver the best health care to our special population of patients,” Steven Burghart, president of Dover Health, said in a press statement. “We also specialize in coordinating with seniors housing to create the best collaborative team for everyone involved in supporting our seniors.”

Parkview Health teams up with CommonSpirit Health at Home

Parkview Health and CommonSpirit Health at Home have teamed up to form a new joint venture to provide home-based care across northeast Indiana. The partnership has been dubbed Parkview Health at Home and launched last month.

“As demand for home health care continues to grow, Parkview has a vision to expand access to the high-quality care our communities deserve,” Dr. Greg Johnson, regional market president for Parkview Health, said in a press release. “This partnership allows Parkview to work with another industry expert to enhance the patient experience. Together, we’ll maximize resources and best practices to meet the evolving needs of the region. As we continue to provide compassionate care, our goal is to advance the way it’s delivered.”

Parkview Health is a not-for-profit, community-based health system that serves northeast Indiana and northwest Ohio.

On its end, CommonSpirit Health at Home is headquartered in Milford, Ohio. It offers specialized home care, home infusion, hospice and medical transportation services nationwide. The company is the home-based care arm of health system CommonSpirit Health.

Under the JV, Parkview home health employees became CommonSpirit employees.

“Throughout the transition, both organizations worked hard to care for our people and respect their preferences, such as schedules and work locations,” Johnson said. “Change can be difficult, and we appreciate the flexibility and teamwork we’ve seen over the last few weeks. Our people truly make all the difference, and we look forward to serving our community with them as Parkview Health at Home.”

CommonSpirit Health at Home’s interim president and CEO, Trisha Crissman, believes that both organizations have the same key goals.

“Parkview Health and CommonSpirit Health at Home share common core, organizational values and are highly aligned around long-term strategies to expand access to care in the home,” she said in the press release. “Both organizations will partner together as we align our strengths to home health care services to care for more people in need within the community.”

BrightSpring Health Services closes multiple acquisitions

BrightSpring Health Services (Nasdaq: BTSG) has completed several tuck-in and strategic acquisitions.

These deals include a home-based primary care group in Arkansas, an institutional special needs health plan in Kentucky and Tennessee, and a home and community pharmacy in Texas.

All of these transactions took place at the start of May.

“We are excited to welcome these companies into our organization and further strengthen our medical and pharmacy services coverage for individuals in home health to long-term care settings,” Jon Rousseau, president and CEO at BrightSpring, said in a press statement. “At BrightSpring, we strive to grow and integrate our service lines to reach more people in need across the care continuum, endeavoring as best possible to deliver high-quality and impactful health services directly where people reside.”

Based in Louisville, BrightSpring delivers care to patients in the home and in the community. The company focuses on complex populations, offering primary care, home- and community-based services, pharmacy services and rehab services to over 400,000 consumers throughout 50 states.

Tuesday Health receives a $60 Million strategic investment

Tuesday Health, a value-based care company, has secured a $60 million funding round.

The investors include Valtruis, Blue Venture Fund, Mass General Brigham Ventures and CareSource.

“Leveraging clinical expertise, advanced data solutions, and cutting-edge technology, while partnering with Ohio’s largest Medicaid plan, its largest hospice provider and the unmatched palliative care experience of Mass General, Tuesday Health is dedicated to tackling one of healthcare’s biggest challenges-providing support and care in the right setting, at the right time, for those facing serious illness,” Jim Wieland, CEO of Tuesday Health, said in a press release.

Thyme Care locks down investment from Echo Health Ventures and CVS Health Ventures

Thyme Care — a value-based cancer care enabler — has received an investment from Echo Health Ventures, a strategic investment platform investing on behalf of multiple Blues health plans, and CVS Health Venture.

“The investment from Echo and CVS is a milestone moment for Thyme Care driven by our commitment to working with partners dedicated to rethinking how we deliver and pay for cancer care,” Brad Diephuis, chief operations officer and president at Thyme Care, said in a press release. “We’re thrilled to welcome them to the team, and we look forward to leveraging their deep industry insights.”

The investment will fuel the national expansion of Thyme Care’s value-based cancer care model.

“Cancer care today is challenging for everyone involved. Patients and families are forced to navigate a complex and frightening care journey, while providers struggle to offer personalized care in a rapidly evolving and often heterogeneous case mix, and health plans grapple with skyrocketing costs,” Kurt Sheline, a partner at Echo Health Ventures, said in the press release. “We believe Thyme Care’s member-centric and provider-integrated approach is unique and has the potential to transform this status quo toward a value-based future that aligns incentives to improve outcomes and lower costs.”

The post Transactions: Dover Health Expands Through Acquisition; Parkview Forms JV With CommonSpirit Health at Home appeared first on Home Health Care News.

And when it does, that will have ramifications on home health providers specifically, and home-based care more generally. With the declaration came a handful of waivers and flexibilities meant to alleviate the harsh impacts of the pandemic for home health providers.

The Biden Administration extended the PHE for another three months on Friday, but providers will need to prepare for the day it will eventually come to an end. 

The PHE was originally declared in March of 2020, retroactive to Jan. 27, 2020. This past April, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) extended the emergency status for 90 additional days, to July 15.

Concerns around waivers and flexibilities

Along with the PHE declaration came a number of regulatory waivers and flexibilities meant to streamline health care processes and ease the overall burden of the pandemic for providers.

One of these waivers made it possible for any of the disciplines — nursing, physical therapy (PT), occupational therapy (OT), or speech language pathologists — to conduct home health admissions based on the needs of the patient.

If the PHE ends, this waiver is not expected to become permanent, according to Cindy Krafft, the co-owner and co-founder of the consulting firm Kornetti & Krafft Health Care Solutions.

“It has deeper regulatory issues and stuff that would have to be dealt with, but it is still allowable in the waiver situation,” she told Home Health Care News. “The reason I think it’s going to be a challenge is the current staffing situation in home health. We know that several agencies are at crisis levels and the ability to move admissions to therapy and take some of that off of nursing, when appropriate, has become routine.”

Krafft noted that a provider she had recently spoken to “leaned heavily” on this waiver option in order to get patients started on services.

Another concern for providers are the staff members who have practiced their entire career under this waiver.

“They came into [home health] at the same time as the waiver,” Krafft said. “What they think is routine — being a PT and doing the admission or being a nurse and not needing to always do it — may be a bit of a rude awakening. It’s normal to them, but this is technically a waiver that is going to go away at some point.”

Despite this, some of the waivers have become permanent options for home health providers.

“If occupational therapy is part of a referral with another therapy, they can do the start of care admission to service,” Krafft said. “This was a waiver, but has now shifted to permanence for our setting. Also, issues around who can sign orders in home health, the role of the nurse practitioner and such, have also moved from a waiver to permanent.”

Telehealth stays top of mind

For providers, the utilization of telehealth and virtual care has also served as a lifeline amid the pandemic.

“CMS’ easing of face-to-face rules during the early days of the public health emergency helped save lives as the pandemic emerged.” Brent Korte, chief home care officer at EvergreenHealth Home Care, told HHCN in an email. “Allowing virtual face-to-face visits in all circumstances streamlined access to home health and kept patients from taking beds in overwhelmed hospitals. This also helped increase access to home health and significantly improved timeliness of care. It helps to reduce duplicative care and even unnecessary visits when patients have to do an in-person visit.”

While home health does not receive reimbursement for telehealth services, the public health emergency brought on new flexibility for providers in regards to HIPAA scrutiny.

Trisha Crissman, vice president and COO of CommonSpirit Health at Home, believes that patients and providers alike will experience the long-term effects if permanent changes are not enacted.

“Without permanent changes to Medicare coverage for telehealth services, most Medicare beneficiaries not residing in rural areas will lose access to coverage for telehealth services,” she told HHCN. “Additionally, the provision of telehealth as an integrated and clinically appropriate part of the home health patient’s plan of care has helped to reduce overall mileage and increase nursing capacity, offsetting some of the financial constraints of decreased volumes and more recently, rising mileage reimbursement rates.”

Unfortunately for providers, the legislative efforts around home health telehealth use have fallen flat.

Plus, home health stakeholders have largely shifted their focus to responding to the proposed payment rule and its potential impact on the industry, according to Krafft.

“There are people running the numbers who are concerned that the payment cut, as it stands, could put a third of agencies in the red and put them under,” she said. “Where there was a lot of discussion about telehealth and legislation before, I think right now the industry is more focused on this payment issue: ‘It’s not going to matter if I get telehealth reimbursement if I’m out of business.’”

One positive of the proposed payment rule is that it calls for the use of G-codes for telehealth, however.

“This allows them to better track utilization, and maybe down the road, if they see that there is utilization of telehealth, it could become part of a payment methodology in the future,” Krafft said.

Hospital-at-home extension

The end of the PHE could also mean a major blow for providers that offer higher-acuity services in the home setting.

In 2021, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) introduced its “Acute Hospital Care At Home” waiver program. The introduction of this waiver allowed approved hospitals and health systems to deliver hospital-at-home services, and to be reimbursed for providing care.

Currently, 107 systems and 242 hospitals, in 36 states, are cleared to perform hospital-at-home services under the waiver program.

Prior to this, reimbursement was a major hurdle that limited the widespread adoption of the hospital-at-home model in the U.S.

Even now, there is no permanent mechanism in fee-for-service Medicare to pay for hospital-at-home care.

Looking to continue the waiver program, lawmakers introduced the “Hospital Inpatient Services Modernization Act” in March. The legislation would extend the waiver by two years.

The post Home Health Providers, Staff In For ‘Rude Awakening’ Following Public Health Emergency Expiration appeared first on Home Health Care News.

CommonSpirit Health looks to sell part of its home health operations

CommonSpirit Health is in talks to transfer ownership of its home health operations in Minnesota and North Dakota to an undisclosed third party, according to recently released financial documents.

Currently, CommonSpirit Health operates more than 1,500 care sites and 140 hospitals across 21 states. The health system has about 150,000 employees total, including 25,000 physicians and advanced practice clinicians.

The health system’s home-based care arm CommonSpirit Health at Home is headquartered in Milford, Ohio. It offers specialized home care, home infusion, hospice and medical transportation services nationwide.

The financial documents also detailed CommonSpirit Health’s recent quarterly earnings. The company checked in at $8.5 billion in total revenue, a 12.3% year-over-year increase.

In addition to the potential sale of some of its home health operations, CommonSpirit Health is also in discussions about drawing up an agreement to transfer ownership of 14 Midwest hospitals.

In May, CommonSpirit Health and Essentia Health called off the potential sale of 14 hospitals and other clinics in North Dakota and Minnesota.

Bayada and Jefferson enter joint venture agreement

Bayada Home Health Care and Jefferson Health have teamed up. The joint venture has been dubbed Jefferson Health at Home and will give Jefferson patients in New Jersey and Pennsylvania access to in-home and virtual care.

“The pandemic heightened demand for hospital services delivered at home,” Dr. Bruce A. Meyer, president of Jefferson Health, said in a statement. “Jefferson extended infusion services and remote oxygen monitoring into the homes of thousands of our patients while seeing tens of thousands of patients through our telehealth service. Now, with Bayada and Jefferson aligned, we’re able to leverage their best post-acute-care practices across an expanded geographic footprint while lowering the total cost of care without compromising access or quality.”

Bayada provides home health, hospice and personal care services through its 28,000 nurses, home health aides, therapists and social workers. Its network includes 350 locations in 22 states, with additional locations in Canada, Germany, India and four other countries.

Meanwhile, Jefferson Health’s hospital locations have 926 licensed acute care beds throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Jefferson Health at Home will leverage both organizations’ resources and experience to execute the program. The joint venture will also operate under the leadership of both organizations.

“This partnership is a revolutionary step toward a future with home at the center of health care,” David Baiada, CEO of Bayada, said in a statement. “Bayada’s management, operational and clinical expertise, paired with Jefferson Health’s clinical vision and commitment to innovation, will continue to transform health care in the Philadelphia region, and we will use this platform to launch bold and innovative digital health care experiences at home –where people want to be most.”

The agreement is slated to be finalized in 2022.

Care Advantage acquires My Home Companion

Care Advantage Inc. has expanded its footprint in Virginia with its acquisition of My Home Companion.

Richmond, Virginia-based Care Advantage has 33 locations throughout Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and D.C.

The deal falls in line with Care Advantage’s strategy of growing its services in this market through its legacy brand, Capital City Nurses.

“I am thrilled to welcome the clients, caregivers, and team of My Home Companion aboard. It was obvious from day one that the businesses complement one another from cultural, geographic, and service offering standpoints,” Tim Hanold, CEO of Care Advantage, said in a statement. “The purchase of My Home Companion signals the acceleration of our M&A strategy across all divisions of our company. We are actively seeking to grow our current footprint, with the support of Searchlight.”

Care Advantage has completed thirteen acquisitions since 2018. This transaction marks Care Advantage’s first completed deal since Searchlight Capital Partners acquired a majority stake in the company.

Addus announces agreement with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico

Addus HomeCare Corporation (Nasdaq: ADUS) has entered into a value-based agreement — “Stay Healthy at Home” — with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico (BCBSNM).

The program is geared at Medicaid members served by BCBSNM’s subsidiary company, Ambercare Corporation. Ambercare is an operator of home health, hospice and personal care services in New Mexico.

The “Stay Healthy at Home” program aims to help BCBSNM members gain increased access to care and close care gaps. In order to accomplish this, Addus’ team will work with the BCBSNM care coordination staff.

As a value-based care program, service metrics and clinical quality outcome measures will play an important role in the program.

“We are pleased to enter this agreement with BCBSNM, to help achieve better health and financial results for BCBSNM as well as improved member satisfaction and outcomes,” Dirk Allison, chairman and CEO of Addus, said in a statement. “As a provider of comprehensive home-based care, we have a significant opportunity to work with the BCBSNM team to promote better outcomes. The ‘Stay Healthy at Home’ program will benefit both our dedicated team of caregivers and the clients we serve across New Mexico.”

Additionally, Addus’ home care aides will receive training that will enable them to identify and report changes in a member’s condition that could require urgent intervention.

The post Transactions: CommonSpirit Health at Home Locations Are Up For Sale; Bayada and Jefferson Form JV Agreement appeared first on Home Health Care News.

CommonSpirit Health is a participant in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP), which began back in 2012 after being designed by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The overall goal of the program is to improve patient care and curb health care costs.

Currently, CommonSpirit Health operates more than 1,000 care sites and 142 hospitals across 21 states. The health system has about 150,000 employees and 25,000 physicians and advanced practice clinicians total.

The health system’s home-based care arm CommonSpirit Health at Home is headquartered in Milford, Ohio. It offers specialized home care, home infusion, hospice and medical transportation services nationwide.

Under the MSSP, CommonSpirit has improved care outcomes for 335,000 Medicare beneficiaries through its 14 accountable care organizations (ACOs). Plus, it boasts an average quality score of 98%.

On average, CommonSpirit’s ACOs saved Medicare $9.3 million, surpassing other average ACOs by $1.3 million, according to a press release announcing the news.

ACOs bring together doctors, hospitals and other care providers to work together and provide coordinated care for Medicare patients. In return, ACOs are paid for the outcomes they deliver — or they can be financially penalized for falling short. Ultimately, the goal is to produce better health outcomes, prevent medical errors and avoid unnecessary duplication of services, as well as to cut overall health care costs.

“Despite the extraordinary challenges the pandemic has posed over the past year, with many patients unable or hesitant to access care, CommonSpirit’s ACO care teams tripled our care coordination engagement and achieved outstanding quality scores,” Dr. Thomas McGinn, executive vice president of physician enterprise at CommonSpirit, said in a press release. “I am proud of their work to proactively engage our patients, especially those most vulnerable and at high-risk, and improve the health and well-being of the communities we serve.”

As a MSSP participant, CommonSpirit has saved Medicare more than $200 million over the past three years. CommonSpirit has pulled it off by increasing annual wellness visits, improving the management of hypertension, enhancing care coordination and innovating its home-based care offerings, according to the press release.

“Many of these long-standing initiatives were accelerated in 2020 as their importance was brought into starker relief by the pandemic,” Dr. McGinn said in the statement. “As a result, our ACOs ramped up to provide 12% more annual wellness visits than the previous year for high-risk patients, while continuing to make gains in chronic disease management.”

In terms of its home-based care offerings, CommonSpirit’s care coordination team collaborates with medical equipment vendors to allow patients to receive home oxygen. The organization also provides intensive home-based rehabilitation and skilled nursing services through in-person and virtual visits.

In terms of virtual visits, CommonSpirit beefed up its telehealth offerings as a large part of its COVID-19 response strategy.

Last year, the company rolled out a remote biomonitoring program, which utilizes a mobile app, voice platform or tablet provided by the company to track a patient’s vital signs. 

“Outcomes for our remote patient monitoring patients are better than those without remote patient monitoring, even though those patients have a higher acuity level, which is interesting to know,” Trisha Crissman, COO of CommonSpirit Health at Home’s home care and hospice division, previously told Home Health Care News. “There’s some sort of ability to feel like you’re in control of your care and your environment.”

The post How CommonSpirit Reduced Medicare Spending by $136M appeared first on Home Health Care News.

One company, CommonSpirit Health at Home, has long recognized the value of telehealth.

Prior to the COVID-19 emergency, CommonSpirit Health at Home had plans to roll out a major telehealth pilot. The public health emergency kicked those plans into high gear, pushing the organization to implement telehealth much sooner.

To learn more, Home Health Care News sat down with Trisha Crissman, COO of CommonSpirit Health at Home’s home care and hospice division, for a recent Disrupt episode. Highlights from the conversation are below, edited for length and clarity.

Subscribe to Disrupt via Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, or your favorite podcast app.

HHCN: For our listeners who aren’t familiar with CommonSpirit Health at Home, tell us a little bit about the company.

Crissman: CommonSpirit Health at Home has been providing home-based health care for over 40 years through specialized home care, home infusion, hospice and medical transportation services across the country. We’re headquartered in Milford, Ohio, and we’re currently comprised of 70 locations across 13 states and nearly 3,000 employees.

In February 2019, CHI Health at Home transitioned to what we call now CommonSpirit Health at Home, as our two larger parent organizations aligned our ministries to form CommonSpirit Health. As a result of Catholic Health Initiatives and Dignity Health aligning, CommonSpirit Health became the largest nonprofit health care system in the country.

It currently operates more than 700 care sites in 142 hospitals across the country. The combined system has about 150,000 employees, and 25,000 physicians and advanced practice clinicians.

For most home-based care companies, the COVID-19 emergency has become the new normal, so to speak. What is CommonSpirit Health at Home experiencing on the ground, now almost 10 months in?

Patients and families have a heightened — and new — level of expectations for care in their home or their place of residence. We’re really seeing that they have become more accustomed to the role that technology plays in their care, which is refreshing. We’re seeing patients become more involved in their health and safety, and becoming more involved in opportunities to collaborate in their plan of care with providers. I think we’ll see this for quite a long time to come still, but we’re still having a difficult time and experiencing challenges related to accessing patients in congregate living environments.

I would also add that our clinicians are increasingly becoming more comfortable with the use of technology as well, understanding that remote patient monitoring and telehealth visits are powerful tools that can help keep our patients and our employees safe.

I’m really proud of the way that our teams have continued to say “yes” to their calling in this kind of new normal state. I think we’ve gotten beyond a place where we think it’s going to go back to normal. I think we’re kind of resolved that this is a new way of existing, and we’re continuing to lean into what’s happening across our country.

I’d also lastly add, in this new normal, our operators and our clinical leaders are responding more quickly to the day-to-day needs and requirements of the business.

What kind of results have you seen related to your telehealth efforts?

I would start off by saying that our rollout of telehealth solutions was incredibly rapid, but the preparation for it was really long. We’ve known all along, as an organization, that telehealth would be an important offering for the future. Our plan was to walk slowly into telehealth, with a plan to implement over the course of 18 months across all of our locations.

We were planning to do a pilot, work out the kinks over five months — and then COVID hit. So remarkably, my team did a phenomenal job responding. We altered our plan, skipped the pilot completely, and rolled out in 27 markets in literally two weeks.

Throughout this process, we’ve expanded our original inclusion criteria to allow for patients that did not want to have clinicians in their home due to COVID concerns. We’ve seen that we’ve had a really strong adoption of remote patient monitoring by both staff and patients. It’s taken us a little bit longer to adapt to the use of virtual visits. So we did spend a lot of time helping clinicians get comfortable with remote visits. We’re prepared for its kind of increased use as we see this resurgence.

Today, I would share that we’ve done over 3,700 virtual visits and have had 2,700 patients on remote patient monitoring since the beginning of the pandemic. This is just a little bit under a quarter of our overall home health census. From an outcomes standpoint, we’ve been able to decrease our in-person nursing visits and increase capacity to care for other patients — which is an outstanding byproduct.

Outcomes for our remote patient monitoring patients are better than those without remote patient monitoring, even though those patients have a higher acuity level, which is interesting to know. Related to patient satisfaction scores, our telehealth patients are 43% happier than those without telehealth. There’s some sort of ability to feel like you’re in control of your care and your environment.

We are constantly talking about this idea of the “cost of COVID-19.” What would you say has been the 2020 impact of the public health emergency on CommonSpirit Health at Home?

I would say the biggest impact that we have seen, of course, is our lost volume, particularly due to hospitals suspending elective surgeries back in the spring. The biggest impact was in states that did a statewide shutdown. In the states that did county-based shutdowns — for example in the Midwest, like Iowa and Nebraska — we didn’t see a significant impact in volumes as we did in other locations.

From a cost standpoint, we’ve seen increased spending for personal protective equipment (PPE), hazard pay, furloughs, lost productivity and costs due to workers being in quarantine.

The post How CommonSpirit Health at Home Launched a 27-Market Telehealth Program in 2 Weeks appeared first on Home Health Care News.

Formerly CHI Health at Home, CommonSpirit Health at Home is a Milford, Ohio-based health care organization that provides home care, home infusion, home respiratory care, hospice and medical transportation services.

As with most home health providers, COVID-19 has become the “new normal” for CommonSpirit. Throughout the public health emergency, the company has implemented a number of measures to address COVID-19 including — most notably — the expansion of its virtual monitoring capabilities.

For this episode of Disrupt, HHCN caught up with CommonSpirit’s Trisha Crissman, vice president and COO of the company’s home care and hospice division, to hear firsthand about its on-the-ground experience with COVID-19. During the conversation, Crissman also touched on how the company is tackling flu season.

Listen to this episode of Disrupt to learn about:

— The financial impact of COVID-19
— Lessons from the public health emergency
— CommonSpirit’s 2021 goals
— And more!

Subscribe to Disrupt to be notified when new episodes are released. Listen today!
Apple Podcasts
Google Play
SoundCloud

Disrupt is exclusively sponsored by

The post Disrupt Podcast #39: Trisha Crissman of CommonSpirit Health at Home appeared first on Home Health Care News.

As of Oct. 1, there had been more than 7 million COVID-19 cases in the U.S. with more than 200,000 deaths, according to federal statistics. A forecasting model created by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington estimates that there will be 371,509 COVID-19 deaths by January 2021.

To get a better understanding of what home health operators are up against this fall, Home Health Care News asked several CEOs and C-suite executives about their biggest concerns — and their plans for addressing them. In addition to the COVID-19 virus, respondents also touched on staffing challenges, consolidation and more.

Here are the top concerns of seven home health leaders as the industry heads into 2020’s final months.

* * *

The biggest concern that we have is what will happen with COVID-19. We have seen a surge happen as young adults return to college and then spread this into the community. Will that negatively impact our senior populations or reduce the referrals we are seeing from some doctors who have resumed elective surgeries? We are working with doctors’ offices that we regularly get referrals from to discover their plans and plan how we can work together to mitigate the impact for both the agency and for the doctor.

Other referral sources like assisted living facilities have stayed on stringent lockdowns, and we see that continuing throughout the duration of the crisis. The concern here is for access to caregivers and the ability of staff to be able to go in and do their job appropriately to make sure that these seniors are not left behind as a result of the ongoing surge that we expect to continue for several months.

We are mitigating this by working with facilities to reduce exposure potential by assigning specific staff just to that facility, running daily ongoing COVID checks and possibly utilizing some of the testing capacity that we expect to see from the federal government for rapid tests. We also have a standing relationship with local testing facilities to get staff in and tested immediately if needed, so that we can do immediate checks and short-term quarantines. We then utilize backup staff who have office positions as a stopgap until the all clear notice is given.

— Beau Sorensen, chief operating officer at First Choice Home Health & Hospice

* * *

The remainder of the year will be focused on a series of concerns including the need to increase provider support through the Provider Relief Fund, addressing Medicaid support shortfalls, securing support for telehealth reimbursement, and bolstering anticipated needs for PPE and staff testing.

Each of these items can be addressed through the ongoing stimulus legislation efforts or through Congressional action post-election. We have taken steps to cover both opportunities with targeted legislation on telehealth and Medicaid, along with broad supports in health care overall for the Provider Relief Fund, Medicaid, PPE and testing as part of the stimulus packages.

Given the extent of needs in the home care and hospice community, no one single focus is sufficient.

— William A. Dombi, president of the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC)

* * *

My biggest concern going into the fall is a COVID-19 resurgence coupled with what could be a tough flu season. This puts our staff at greater risk and could have a terrible impact on the elderly and at risk populations.

How do we address this? By working to get 100% of our clinicians vaccinated against influenza, ensuring we have adequate PPE and keeping our staff up-to-date on how to avoid community-based infection while both on or off the job. The health of our staff is our highest priority, and we have to double down on what kept them safe in the early days of COVID.

The pandemic is far from over, and I fear that the fall could be far worse than the spring if we don’t continue to take real action to keep health care workers safe.

— Brent Korte, chief home care officer at EvergreenHealth Home Care

* * *

As we move into fall, amidst this next phase of the pandemic or otherwise, our biggest concern remains caring for all patients with a range of health care needs: from high-acuity medical care to personalized non-medical support.

This means caring for the widest range of those who need our help, including pediatric patients with complex medical needs at home or in school while parents sort out virtual/hybrid learning models. It means setting up seniors with home aides to assist with meals and other chores. We’re also providing clinically based COVID-19 testing and screening services to ensure healthy work, learning and retail environments.

Our aim is that patients with milder COVID symptoms can transition home with the same high-quality care, while freeing up hospitals to support more intensive cases of COVID-19. To do this, we continue to fight the other battle, the caregiver shortage. To care for our patients, we search for and welcome the caregivers who want to give back, support their communities and make a difference in a job that is recession-proof and can change lives. Currently, those candidates could be from the many left jobless by the pandemic, including those from the hospitality, travel and restaurant industries.

Our challenge to meet patients where they are means being there to combat feelings of social isolation, especially as we approach the fall and winter seasons. By caring for our patients’ minds, bodies and spirit through our “Home Life Enrichment” standard-of-care, we can keep them healthy and safe but also connected to their loved ones and the world around them via in-person or telehealth interactions. For those facing end-of-life, meeting patients and their families with the support and comfort care of hospice in their final days and moments is what makes our team different.

— Jennifer Sheets, president and CEO of Interim HealthCare

* * *

What are the top concerns for our home health agency this fall? Is it our star rating? Our patient satisfaction? Maintaining a low re-hospitalization rate? Is it delivering on value or ensuring compliance? Surveys? Staffing? The Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM)? The Review Choice Demonstration (RCD)? Audits, payers, costs, technology or hospital narrow networks? COVID-19?

These are all yesterday’s concerns. Today’s top concern is how hospital systems and the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) want the small home health agencies to close. This is good for the large providers that have exclusivity and control a majority of the Medicare revenue, but bad for small providers, which are the great majority of agencies in America. We don’t have a seat at the table regardless of cost, quality or patient’s choice.

The second concern is the volume increase of “low pay,” “slow pay” and “no pay” high case-mix patients who are having issues accessing care. Agencies are going to have to be providing their referral sources with 5-star care. If an agency has a bad referral source, it’s safe to assume they are another agency’s good one. If agencies keep taking bad referral sources hoping that they will turn into good ones, it will most likely accelerate an agency’s closure. Agencies must be continuously looking for partnership opportunities with referral sources that want value — or get an exit strategy.

— Peter Miska, president of Phoenix Home Care LLC

* * *

The biggest concern — and opportunity — we have as an organization is the continued uncertainty, unrest and anxiety facing our communities, our patients, their families and our front-line “heroes” in the field. Adding fuel to “COVID-fatigue” is the unknown impact of the flu season aligning with a possible resurgence of the coronavirus. That requires us to remain vigilant in our support and messaging. We’ll continue to build upon what we have learned so far.

Over the last seven months, we have successfully navigated through the varying challenges of the pandemic to keep our patients, employees and communities safe. The result of this focus led to the implementation of new tools, technology and strong processes that have elevated home health in the continuum of care. We are reaching more patients, more families and serving our communities in different ways than we have in the past, putting us in a strong position to weather additional challenges as they come.

In response to the pandemic, we implemented innovative technology strategies and solutions to assist in keeping everyone as safe and connected as possible. As the flu and COVID-19 collide, we will continue leveraging our technology-based solutions such as remote patient monitoring, virtual visits and medication management delivery to enhance our care plans while supporting infection control measures and social distancing to minimize risk for our caregivers.

Regular COVID-19 training and flu education ensures a consistent approach to proven methodologies that have been implemented to protect our greatest resource – our staff – so they can do their best work for our patients.

We have used and will continue to use analytics to help make data-driven decisions during the pandemic. We have refined processes and implemented changes based on our learnings to ensure the safety of all. We have focused equal effort into providing tools and resources to our front-line caregivers to ensure they are safe, engaged, supported and have what it takes to be resilient in hard times.

— Dan Dietz, president and CEO of CommonSpirit Health at Home

* * *

Trinity Health At Home has seen an increase in home care visits at faster rates than expected this quarter. As patients across our nation continue to seek equal access to health care, the need for home care services continues to climb. As home care providers, we must continue monitoring and improving our processes to ensure current and future patients have access to care. At the start of the pandemic, we adapted quickly across our home health agencies to meet patient needs under new circumstances. Our innovation will continue in the brighter days ahead.

Though we have all adapted to COVID-19, we must continue to take our COVID-19 response and processes very seriously. At Trinity Health At Home, the safety and well-being of our patients and colleagues remain our priority moving forward. Right now, support for our devoted nurses and clinicians is of utmost importance. We are securing additional supplies of PPE, ensuring the safety of staff on home visits and encouraging self-care to limit the stress and uncertainty of our new normal. By keeping our colleagues healthy and engaged, we can ensure proper staffing levels to guarantee high-quality home care and expand access to care within our communities.

— Mark McPherson, president and CEO of Trinity Health At Home

The post ‘The Pandemic Is Far from Over’: Top Concerns for the Home Health Industry This Fall appeared first on Home Health Care News.

CommonSpirit Health at Home — already no stranger to telehealth tools — recently announced that it has expanded its virtual monitoring capabilities.

Formerly CHI Health at Home, CommonSpirit Health at Home is a Milford, Ohio-based health care organization that provides home care, home infusion, home respiratory care, hospice and medical transportation services with 40 locations across 10 states.

While the company initially saw a decline in home health patients due to a drop in elective procedures related to COVID-19, it has since seen an influx of chronic disease management patients.

In order to beef up its telehealth offerings, CommonSpirit Health at Home has launched a remote biomonitoring program, which utilizes a new mobile app, voice platform or tablet provided by the company to track a patient’s vital signs.

“We are using [telehealth] for a number of at-risk patients that are coming out of the hospital and monitoring their status on a daily basis, intervening when we see any decline,” Rod Plunkett, vice president of population health management at CommonSpirit Health at Home, told Home Health Care News.

For CommonSpirit Health at Home, making sure that the majority of its patient population is taking advantage of these services is important, as many individuals don’t have access to acute services during the COVID-19 emergency, according to Plunkett.

“We have specific hubs of telehealth nurses who are responsible for each of the branches in our region,” he said. “We are trying to initiate telehealth with as many patients as we can, not just COVID-19 patients, but our chronic disease management patients who are at risk during this.”

One major benefit of telehealth is an increased capacity to see more patients. It has also allowed CommonSpirit Health at Home to limit in-person visits, according to Plunkett.

The organization has doubled down on its telehealth strategy despite the fact reimbursement still remains a barrier for home health providers. The reasoning is simple: telehealth services are crucial to providing care in the present, according to Plunkett.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) granted some Medicare providers and practitioners more flexibility around telehealth and billing on Thursday, but home health providers have largely been left out of the picture.

Some states have secured additional telehealth flexibility through Medicaid as well.

“CMS has given us some leeway with the 1135 waivers, some latitude in using virtual visits, and they have relaxed [what constitutes] homebound status,” Plunkett said. “They haven’t agreed to pay for visits or allowed them to count as a billable visit. Other payers — state Medicaid programs and some commercial payers — are allowing virtual visits to count toward billable visits.”

For CommonSpirit Health at Home, telehealth costs have mostly come out of pocket, as only three of the states the company operates in provide coverage under Medicaid, according to Plunkett.

“It’s part of our cost of doing business,” he said.

In addition to its remote biomonitoring offering, CommonSpirit Health at Home launched a new medication delivery and management service.

The service allows patients to have prepacked envelopes with the date and time of each dosage delivered to their home. As part of the service, the medication refills are coordinated by the company.

Looking ahead, CommonSpirit Health at Home is preparing itself for a possible surge of patients that emerge during the COVID-19 emergency.

CMS recently rolled out a set of guidelines that could set the stage for health systems to begin performing elective procedures again. Historically, home health providers have cared for a large number of patients post-surgery — giving providers a financial boost.

“Some of the states that we are in have started elective procedures again,” Plunkett said. “We will see if there is a secondary surge of patients after this starts.”

The post CommonSpirit Health at Home Beefs Up Telehealth Offerings Amid COVID-19 appeared first on Home Health Care News.