Noli and Isabel Tcruz of Washington Township, Michigan, were sentenced on Sept. 4. Noli Tcruz received six years in prison, and his wife was given three years and two months.

The Tcruzes were convicted and sentenced for schemes related to their operation of several Macomb County home health care companies. These companies purported to provide legitimate medical care to Medicare beneficiaries but engaged in fraud.

“My office will diligently investigate and prosecute all types of fraud driven by greed,” U.S. Attorney Ison said in a statement. “Noli and Isabel Tcruz’s fraud harmed taxpayers and the government programs our tax dollars fund, including Medicare and COVID-19 programs. Health care professionals and providers have an opportunity and a duty to help people lawfully. Still, we will not hesitate to pursue individuals like these defendants who breach those duties to line their own pockets.”

The Tcruzes were involved in a roughly $5 million scheme to illegally offer kickbacks and bribes in exchange for referrals for home health care for Medicare beneficiaries. They also failed to pay their personal and business taxes.

After their last home health company closed in February 2020, Noli Tcruz began committing COVID-19 program fraud. He used a family member’s identity and company to deceive and defraud the Small Business Administration and Health and Human Services, obtaining over $250,000 in pandemic assistance funds.

Two physicians, Dr. Terry Baul and Dr. David Calderone, admitted to accepting kickbacks and bribes in exchange for referring Medicare beneficiaries to the Tcruzes. As part of their plea agreements, the two physicians were required to pay more than $3 million in restitution and forfeiture judgments. Additionally, they have been excluded from participating in Medicare and other federal health care programs.

“Paying kickbacks to induce referrals for medical services in federal health care programs is illegal and can lead to the delivery of unnecessary services, wasting valuable taxpayer funds,” Mario M. Pinto, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) said in a statement. “HHS-OIG will continue collaborating with our law enforcement partners to ensure that those who engage in unlawful kickback schemes in our federal health care programs are held accountable.”

The post Home Health Leaders Found Guilty In $5M Fraud Scheme  appeared first on Home Health Care News.

Under the guidance, OIG requires hospitals to share a list of Medicare-certified home health providers that serve a patient’s geographic area. The goal is to make sure patients’ freedom to select a home health provider is being honored.

In general, OIG’s guidance falls in line with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)’s 2019 updates to the discharge planning requirements for home health providers.

“I think [OIG’s guidance] is very consistent with this,” private-practice attorney Elizabeth E. Hogue told Home Health Care News. “CMS has said there’s information that patients and their families have to get immediately when they request it, related to discharge planning and care. I think that’s exactly what OIG would like to see — as much information as possible given to patients and their would-be caregivers, so they can make good decisions.”

Specifically, CMS’s rule required hospitals to give patients and their families access to information that would help them make informed decisions about their home health provider options. This information includes data on quality measures and resource use measures.

At the time, CMS’s rules around discharge planning put to rest an industry-wide call for more clarity.

Aside from building on CMS’s 2019 rule, OIG’s guidance also addresses fraud head-on.

Hospitals are required to identify any home health providers they have a financial interest in — and vice versa. This helps prevent hospital discharge planners from pushing patients toward a specific provider that they may favor or have business relationships with.

“I can only really speak anecdotally,” Hogue said. “What I hear is when hospitals have an ownership interest in a home health provider, discharge planners and case managers may come under a lot of fire and feel pressure to refer most, if not all patients, to those entities.”

Hogue noted that OIG was concerned with hospitals accepting kickbacks from home health providers in exchange for referrals.

“The OIG has sort of been targeting discharge planners and case managers recently,” she said. “I’ve talked about the things post-acute providers have given them that cause them to refer to providers. [This included] … Louis Vuitton pocketbooks, trips to Napa Valley. In other words, kickbacks in exchange for referrals.”

Still, OIG’s oversight is a win for home health providers. It ensures that providers that fall outside of a referring hospital’s financial interest and aren’t offering kickbacks have a fair chance to care for patients being discharged.

“The preference, if not mandatory referrals, to entities owned by the hospitals has been a perennial problem for providers who are not associated with a hospital,” Hogue said. “[Providers] complain about it and have for years, quite bitterly saying, ‘All we want is a level playing field. We will compete along with everybody else, but we can’t when hospitals own these entities and put pressure on their discharge planners.’”

The post OIG Sets Guidelines for Hospitals Referring to Home Health Providers appeared first on Home Health Care News.

That’s all good news. But it coincides with a much harsher reality in the U.S.: the virus’ spread is more rampant than ever; health care providers are becoming overwhelmed; and testing is becoming an inadequate mitigator.

Over 50 million tests have now been sent out by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). As of late October, 632,480 COVID-19 Abbott BinaxNOW diagnostic tests had been sent to home health and hospice agencies, an HHS spokesperson told Home Health Care News in an email.

But testing alone will not be an antidote to the troubles that COVID-19 presents agencies.

“This is not like a few Ebola cases that you can test and trace. We cannot test our way out of this,” HHS Assistant Health Secretary Adm. Brett Giroir said on a call with reporters Monday. “We have to do the large-scale mitigation efforts.”

Last week, the U.S. hit multiple record-breaking highs in new daily cases. Overall, there have been nearly 11 million total cases of COVID-19 reported since the pandemic began, with nearly 255,000 total deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

While tests are being shipped out by the government to home health providers, having them hasn’t been the godsend that some thought it may be.

In a survey of nearly 600 providers conducted by the Washington, D.C.-based advocacy organization LeadingAge, respondents listed a slew of reasons for that.

For one, Abbott’s BinaxNOW tests — which are the kind home health care providers have mostly received — are perceived to be less reliable than PCR tests. Of the health care providers that LeadingAge surveyed, over one-third of them were not using the BinaxNOW tests they had been sent at all.

That could be because the providers already have testing protocols in place, so they don’t need to use the BinaxNOW tests. But other reasons include the reporting requirements being too “cumbersome” or that the BinaxNOW tests have only recently been sent to the agencies.

The general feeling from providers on BinaxNOW tests is that they are a good supplement to already in-place testing measures, but not sufficient enough as a front-line testing strategy, according to the LeadingAge survey.

Nearly 340,000 more BinaxNOW tests are set to be sent to home health and hospice providers this week, Giroir said.

BinaxNOW tests are “intended for the qualitative detection of nucleocapsid protein antigen from SARS-CoV-2 in direct nasal swabs from individuals suspected of COVID-19 by their health care provider within the first seven days of symptom onset,” according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

A key caveat, however, is that “negative results do not rule out SARS-CoV-2 infection and should not be used as the sole basis for treatment or patient management decisions, including infection control decisions.”

In other words, the BinaxNOW tests help agencies, but they’re not a full-blown solution — or even close to it.

While Giroir pushed COVID-19 protocols hard on Monday’s call, including physical distancing, mask-wearing and avoiding large indoor crowds — including during the holidays — he also suggested government-led at-home testing was on the horizon.

“[We’re] trying to solicit, with hundreds of millions of dollars behind it, more availability of tests that could be used at-home,” Giroir said.

Companies such as on-demand health care startup Ready have already been administering COVID-19 tests in the home for months. Ready is using that experience and at-home flu vaccinations to prepare itself for when a COVID-19 vaccine is available and able to be deployed to individuals’ homes.

That could be sooner rather than later.

“We remain extremely encouraged by the news reported by Pfizer last week that their vaccine is safe and has a greater than 90% effectiveness at preventing symptomatic COVID infection,” Giroir said. “If these data are confirmed by the transparent, non-political, evidence-based process leading to an EUA, we would have enough vaccines from Pfizer to potentially protect up to 20 million people in 2020.”

The post ‘Hundreds of Millions of Dollars’ Being Put Toward At-Home Testing Efforts, HHS Says appeared first on Home Health Care News.

According to an online “index” of its distribution efforts, HHS is sending tests to the “largest 100+” home health and hospice agencies, with those providers then tasked with distributing COVID-19 tests to locations within their networks.

In total, that allocation of tests will cover 1.8 million patients and allow staff at the selected agencies to be tested once per week, according to the department.

Thus far, 632,480 COVID-19 Abbott BinaxNOW diagnostic tests have been sent to home health and hospice agencies, an HHS spokesperson told Home Health Care News in an email.

For context, HHS is planning to distribute 150 million tests it procured from Abbott to U.S. senior care providers and others “as quickly as possible.” Nearly 37 million of those tests will have been distributed by the end of this week, with over 7 million going to nursing homes and 26.5 million going to state governments across the country.

“As I have stated before, the way to flatten the curve, slow the spread and save lives until we have a safe and effective vaccine is smart policies, plus smart testing,” HHS Assistant Health Secretary Adm. Brett Giroir said on a call with reporters Monday. “This is the proven formula that worked in the Sunbelt in the deep South, and [it] can work across the country.”

The home health care industry is historically a very fragmented field, with anywhere from 10,000 to 12,000 different agencies in operation over the past few years.

In 2019, Kindred at Home was the largest home health organization in terms of patient volume, yet it only controlled 5.9% of the overall market, according to Atlanta-based data and technology firm LexisNexis Risk Solutions, which is a part of the global analytics company RELX (NYSE: RELX).

Amedisys Inc. (Nasdaq: AMED), LHC Group Inc. (Nasdaq: LHCG), Encompass Health (NYSE: EHC) and AccentCare are also among the top-five largest providers. Even so, not a single one accounted for over 5% of the U.S. home health market in 2019.

Of the 150 million tests that are set to be distributed, 10 million are expected to be sent to home health and hospice providers.

HHS is encouraged by how the tests have been deployed and utilized thus far.

“The response to the additional tests [distributed] to the ecosystem has been tremendous,” Giroir said.

Giroir also reiterated on the call that asymptomatic testing is encouraged, especially for workers coming into contact with vulnerable populations.

Previously, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention switched its guidelines to not recommend testing for individuals that were asymptomatic. Since then, they have reversed that decision.

“We do support asymptomatic testing,” Giroir said. “The only way that you’re going to screen millions of people per month is to use these antigen tests, which have been in our armamentarium.”

The post HHS Prioritizing ‘Largest’ Home Health Agencies for Federally Distributed COVID-19 Tests appeared first on Home Health Care News.

Specifically, Azar thinks the increase in telehealth usage and a stronger focus on social determinants of health will be major influences in a more value-based health care system in the U.S moving forward.

“One of the instructive experiences from COVID-19 has been the vastly expanded role of telehealth,” Azar said Thursday at the Medicare Advantage Virtual Summit, hosted by the Better Medicare Alliance. “We went from about 14,000 virtual visits in Medicare fee-for-service each week before the pandemic to nearly 1.7 million virtual visits a week, at the peak. There’s no undoing this revolution.”

Although the ongoing public health emergency has increased the need for home-based care, the federal government has recognized the crucial part it plays in the health care system for years. That recognition is partly reflected by the evolution of Medicare Advantage (MA), Azar said.

“We’ve already worked over the past several years to create permanent flexibilities … in Medicare Advantage, expanding the ability for plans to pay for virtual check-ins and a wider variety of circumstances, allowing patients to receive this care from the convenience of their home rather than a doctor’s office,” the HHS secretary added.

Additionally, through the changes that have occurred to telehealth during the COVID-19 crisis, rural residents will begin experiencing easier access to care, Azar said.

Rural access to care has long been an inequity of the U.S health care system.

The COVID-19 pandemic has also exposed the disparities in care for both underprivileged and chronically ill populations. The expanded MA benefits — both the primarily health-related ones and those under the new Special Supplemental Benefits for the Chronically Ill (SSBCI) program — are a way to address those disparities moving forward, Azar believes.

“We want to support you in addressing these disparities and health challenges in a holistic way,” he said. “And that has informed our efforts to expand the array of supplemental benefits that MA plans can offer.”

Last month, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) released new data in a 2021 MA preview. It revealed that 738 plans are offering primarily health-related supplemental benefits in 2021, a 46% increase compared to the nearly 500 plans that did so in 2020.

It also showed that 920 plans are offering benefits under SSBCI pathway next year, a nearly 400% increase compared to the 245 plans that did so this year.

“All of you have made it a priority to address social determinants of health,” Azar said. “And that is an area of great interest for us as well. Addressing costly and debilitating chronic conditions can sometimes be impossible without addressing particular non-health needs. And MA allows you to do that in a way that focuses on value outcomes and a patient’s individual needs.”

Zeroing in on social determinants will be easier with more MA plans carrying SSBCI benefits in 2021 and beyond.

In general, the pool of MA beneficiaries is also getting larger, which will help providers reach and care for more individuals.

The actuarial firm Milliman recently examined growth in MA enrollment over recent years; the firm’s results showed an increase of 60% in MA enrollment from 2013 to 2019. Enrollment among beneficiaries in traditional Medicare only increased 5% during the same time frame. 

“This independent report offers an eye-opening look at Medicare Advantage’s explosive growth,” Allyson Schwartz, the president and CEO of the Better Medicare Alliance, said in a press release. “And with dramatic growth in enrollment among dual-eligible beneficiaries, we know that supporting health coverage for our most vulnerable seniors means supporting these individuals’ choice of Medicare Advantage.”

The post ‘There’s No Undoing This Revolution’: HHS Secretary Alex Azar Touts In-Home Care, Virtual Visits appeared first on Home Health Care News.

Unlike some of the previous rounds of relief, home health providers and others will have to apply for funding. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will begin accepting applications from providers on Oct. 5, marking the start of the third phase of the fund.

The Provider Relief Fund has sent out over $100 billion to health care providers during the COVID-19 crisis. In addition to home health providers, the fund has helped support skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), hospitals, assisted living operators and even some behavioral health organizations.

“HHS has worked to ensure that all American health care providers receive support from the Provider Relief Fund in a fast and fair way, and this new round helps ensure that we are reaching America’s essential behavioral health providers and takes into account losses and expenses relating to coronavirus,” HHS Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement. “We’ve worked with all of the resources we have across HHS to ensure that America’s heroic health care providers know they can apply for support.”

Under the Phase 3 stage, providers that have already received funding and those that have denied it in the past are able to apply to help cover losses tied to the COVID-19 virus. Unlike previous rounds based on past years’ financial data, home health providers that began operating in 2020 — from January to March of this year — are eligible to apply for relief.

“We are very pleased that HHS has established a new distribution to support those health care providers that have been especially impacted by COVID-19,” National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) President William A. Dombi told Home Health Care News in an email.

Although more funding for home health providers is helpful, Dombi also added that he believed it was time for non-Medicare-certified home care providers to receive some sort of relief. To date, those providers have not received any official federal funding outside of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).

Policymakers don’t have to search too far to find a precedent for supporting non-medical, private-pay home care businesses. HHS announced in September that private-pay assisted living operators were eligible for funding under the Provider Relief Fund Phase 2 General Distribution.

“It would also be essential that HHS open a distribution to the crucial home care providers that do not provide Medicare or Medicaid services,” Dombi said. “Those home care providers serve highly vulnerable populations of the elderly and persons with disabilities. We have made repeated requests to include those home care providers in the distributions.”

The application window for the latest tranche of funding closes on Nov. 6 — and the money is likely to go fast. That’s why the government is urging needy providers to apply as soon as possible.

“We know providers want to receive payments shortly after submitting their information. However, this distribution requires cooperation on the part of all applicants,” HHS wrote in an online announcement. “Again, HHS is urging all eligible providers to apply early; do not wait until the last day or week of the application period. Applying early will help to expedite HHS’s review process and payment calculations, and ultimately accelerate the distribution of all payments.”

NAHC has also expressed concerns about the standards by which providers can apply for funding. Some of the unclear qualifications for federal funding have scared off providers or hindered their ability to get assistance in the first place.

“HHS must address the problems created by its recent change to the standards for what ‘lost revenues’ are covered by the fund,” Dombi said. “We have been partnering with HHS on this important relief for months, but still need these remaining areas to be resolved soon.”

HHS also began sending COVID-19 tests from Abbott to home health agencies this week. Over 10 million tests have been allotted for home health and hospice agencies, and providers have reportedly begun receiving them.

Over 258,000 tests are scheduled to go out between home health and hospice providers this week, a HHS spokesperson told HHCN.

The post HHS Adds $20B to Provider Relief Fund for Home Health Agencies, Others appeared first on Home Health Care News.

On Monday, the White House announced plans to ship 150 million tests across the country in the coming weeks, 10 million of which will be sent to home health and hospice providers.

The news comes after a call HHS had with members of the media last week. On it, HHS assistant health secretary Adm. Brett Giroir spoke about the department’s efforts to send out point-of-care COVID-19 tests from Abbott to nursing homes and the efficacy of those efforts thus far.

After the call, a HHS spokesperson told HHCN that some tests would be sent out to home health agencies this week and that further details will be ironed out as early as Tuesday.

“BinaxNOW tests to home health agencies are being finalized as we speak,” the spokesperson said in an email.

Giroir went without mentioning home health agencies on the call, but previously said that home health staff would also be beneficiaries of the agency’s broader testing initiatives.

“The administration will begin distributing BinaxNow tests in collaboration with Abbott in mid-September,” Giroir said on a call in early September. “Distribution will occur to support the protection of the vulnerable in assisted living, senior centers and home health staff, which currently do not receive the benefits of our nursing home program.”

When word first broke that home health agencies would get access to federally-provided COVID-19 tests, stakeholders were pleasantly surprised. But some industry advocates questioned how much of an impact it could really make.

“While 100 million to 150 million tests sounds like a lot, when you distribute them to [assisted-living facilities], schools and [home health agencies], it diminishes quickly,” National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) President William A. Dombi said on a recent webinar hosted by Littler Mendelson.

Dombi also expressed concern about the accuracy of the point-of-care, rapid response tests being distributed.

“It’s a tool in the infection-control toolbox. It’s not a panacea,” he said. “Overall, there are limitations to that rapid test’s quality and accuracy.”

The rate of false positives from the tests sent to nursing homes is on par with expectations, however, according to Giroir.

“That is not shown at all. We know with every test, including molecular tests and PCR tests, that there are false positives,” Giroir said on Friday’s call.

He added that the amount of inaccurate results depends on the population, but still defended the tests’ overall effectiveness.

The post [Updated] Home Health Agencies to Start Receiving COVID-19 Tests from Feds This Week appeared first on Home Health Care News.

When the Provider Relief Fund was established, health care providers were originally going to have to submit quarterly reports beginning in July. HHS delayed that deadline and then told providers to hold tight for further guidance.

Now, home health providers have until early 2021, but can begin reporting on how they used their relief funds as early as Oct. 1 of this year. Broadly, relief funds are designed to help cover monetary losses directly tied to the COVID-19 crisis and its economic impact.

Through the CARES Act, $175 billion was distributed to health care providers across the country from the Provider Relief Fund.

“I think there’s a growing recognition by HHS of the complexity of what providers are being asked to do in utilizing these provider relief funds, documenting usage of them and then reporting that out,” Matt Wolfe, a partner at law firm Parker Poe, told Home Health Care News. “I think HHS is trying to develop a little bit more consensus within its walls before they start demanding that providers report information.”

HHS will be releasing more detailed instructions on how to report by Aug. 17.

Without further clarification, reporting will likely be sloppier and inconsistent across the board, which could draw the process out even further, Wolfe said.

“I think this was a recognition of HHS needing additional time to be able to really refine the reporting requirements,” he added.

The $10,000 threshold takes into account the total amount of relief each provider received. So if a provider received two smaller amounts that added up to more than $10,000, it wouldd still be on the hook for reporting by February of next year.

“This announcement was really clarifying to providers when HHS intends to release additional information about the reporting requirements. It was also notifying providers when they’re going to release a reporting system that will allow recipients to be able to make these reports,” Wolfe said. “HHS was fielding a lot of questions from providers thinking that they had to make reports now. So that was the purpose of the announcement, [to clarify that].”

The next stimulus package, meanwhile, could make way for an expansion of that Provider Relief Fund, which would mean even more relief for providers in the future.

HHS began distributing provider relief payments to Medicare-certified home health agencies on April 10.

Initially, U.S. health care officials described the payments as having “no strings attached.” As time moved on, however, providers started to realize that wasn’t entirely the case, with some even declining the CARES Act money that had been allocated to them.

Encompass Health Corporation (NYSE: EHC) is one example.

“At the end of the day, we just felt, as a well-capitalized company, we had access to a variety of funding resources,” Encompass Health CEO Mark Tarr said during a May investor presentation. “We just thought it was the best decision for Encompass Health to return the funds.”

As for what further details could come out of the next announcement, that remains to be seen. While some speculated that the quarterly-report style could be done away with completely, Wolfe isn’t so sure.

“We’re still having to wait and see what the detailed instructions are going to be that they release later in August, but I don’t read this announcement to say that the quarterly requirements are necessarily going to go away,” Wolfe said.

The post HHS Delays Provider Relief Fund Spending Reports Until 2021 appeared first on Home Health Care News.

In April, $30 billion was dispersed as an initial distribution of the general allocation fund to providers that received Medicare fee-for-service payments in 2019. A second tranche of $20 billion worth of funding was also distributed to providers that rely less on Medicare as a funding source, relying on 2018 net patient revenues instead.

All providers that bill Medicare fee-for-service received that first wave of financial relief; only some providers received that second tranche.

It’s that second wave of funding’s terms and conditions that providers will need to attest to by June 3 if they want a piece of it.

“At first, when [HHS] announced that second tranche of funding, they had said that they were just going to accept applications on a rolling basis. They did not provide any deadline,” Matt Wolfe, a partner at law firm Parker Poe, told Home Health Care News. “At some point, I think they realized that they needed to cut things off. And so that’s why they announced that providers would have until June 3 to submit information.”

In order to submit the application for that secondary payment, two things are required from providers.

First, a provider has to have received an initial payment from that first pool of $30 billion.

“So if you didn’t receive any allocation back in April, you would not be eligible to apply for the second one,” Wolfe said. “Then, the other thing that the provider has to do is … actually attest to proceed into agreeing to the terms and conditions in order to be able to move forward with the second-tranche application.”

Because receiving funds from the second tranche is contingent upon receiving money from the first, providers should make sure they’ve already attested to the confirming agreement and terms and conditions of the original round.

Originally, the funding was displayed as a no-strings attached payment.

Since then, HHS has made it clear that the way these funds are being used will be closely monitored. So for providers that elect to use the money given to them, they should be cognizant of how it is deployed within their own business.

“I think, for the most part, you are seeing home health providers retaining the funds,” Wolfe said. “I think there were some initial concerns that they may have a repayment obligation because of how the second tranche of funding was announced. There was some poor messaging on how the second of funding was going to be calculated. But since then, there’s been some recent clarification by HHS, and my impression is that most of the home health industry feels comfortable retaining payments.”

To make sure that they don’t face trouble down the line, providers should segregate these funds and ensure they are being used to cover expenses that are directly tied to COVID-19, Wolfe said.

“That would include buying additional personal protective equipment (PPE) or using the funds to make up for the revenue losses sustained in March and April,” he noted.

One of the things that is required in the application portal, in addition to tax return information, is providing evidence of revenue losses in March and April.

“So if you haven’t lost money, then I think it would be difficult to justify retention of the provided relief,” Wolfe said. “But that shouldn’t be a problem for most in the industry.”

The post Last-Minute Advice for Home Health Agencies Before Key Provider Relief Fund Deadline appeared first on Home Health Care News.

What you need to know from Friday-Sunday (May 8-10)

— Help At Home, a Chicago-based home- and community-based care services company, launched a fund for workers affected by COVID-19. The company contributed $1 million to the fund right off the bat.

— Key economic advisers within the Trump administration are bracing for the unemployment rate to climb above 20% in coming months, according to The New York Times. The rising unemployment will likely cause some individuals to seek work within the in-home care space, which has historically dealt with a surplus of consumer demand but a shortage of labor.

— Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf granted civil immunity to health care workers on the front lines of the COVID-19 fight this week. The executive order does not, however, cover “willful misconduct” or “gross negligence.” It also does not extend to the owners of health care operations.

— Nearly half of home care organizations are unable to obtain sufficient PPE for their workers, a new Home Care Association of America (HCAOA) survey found. Other highlights from the survey: about 90% of respondents applied or are applying for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), with 71% offering or planning to offer paid sick leave. On average, fewer than 10 workers per surveyed home care organization have requested sick leave.

— LHC Group Inc. (Nasdaq: LHCG) leadership explained how the company is bouncing back from coronavirus disruption. In the week ended March 28 alone, the provider saw 8,585 missed visits.

— The Trump administration is reportedly working to contain an outbreak of the COVID-19 virus inside the White House.

What you need to know from Thursday (May 7)

— Unemployment filings reached 3.17 million last week, bringing the total to 33.5 million over the past seven weeks, the Department of Labor (DOL) reported Thursday.

— The ongoing coronavirus outbreak should cause state regulators to rethink nonmedical home care licensure requirements. That’s according to Judith B. Clinco, the founder and president of Catalina In-Home Services Inc. She discussed the topic in an op-ed published by the Arizona Daily Star. “Nonmedical home-care is a vital segment of the caring professions, but it’s unique in its lack of state oversight,” Clinco, who is also founder of the CareGiver Training Institute, wrote.

— LetsGetChecked, an in-home health testing startup, raised $71 million, according to Axios. The fundraising round was co-led by Illumina Ventures and HLM Venture Partners.

— During a virtual press conference with several senior care providers, LeadingAge demanded more action from policymakers to help keep older adults and the workers who care for them safe. “Aging services providers … have not been able to get the PPE or testing they need to protect older Americans or their employees,” Katie Smith Sloan, president and CEO of LeadingAge, said.

— Amedisys has received roughly $100 million under the CARES Act Provider Relief Fund, the company reported during a first-quarter earnings call Thursday. It is taking a cautious approach to using that emergency money until federal policymakers provide further clarity, however.

What you need to know from Wednesday (May 6)

— Brookdale’s home health care segment has faced major disruption due to the fact COVID-19 hit during the transition to the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM). CEO Cindy Baier provided a home health update during a Q1 earnings call Wednesday.

— Less than a day after the Trump Administration announced plans to phase out the coronavirus task force, which was created to monitor, contain and mitigate the coronavirus, the president walked back his comments. Instead of disbanding, the task force will shift its focus to developing vaccines and reopening the economy, President Trump said Wednesday.

— The coronavirus death toll in the U.S. has topped 71,000, though the daily number of deaths and new infections are falling. In New York alone, nearly 5,000 of those deaths have been connected to nursing homes or adult day care facilities.

— The latest numbers come as Vice President Mike Pence — who leads the coronavirus task force — says the country has made “the tremendous progress.” Still, the battle against the coronavirus is far from over, and the U.S. still has months of fighting left. In fact, new estimates suggest that COVID-19 deaths could double by early August, with infection rates expected to rise again as businesses reopen.

— In New York, more than a dozen children have been hospitalized with a mysterious illness that experts believe could be linked to the coronavirus. Symptoms are similar to those experienced with Kawasaki disease, a rare illness in children that involves inflammation of the blood vessels. Children in Europe have reported similar symptoms. The development may be something for pediatric home health providers to keep an eye on moving forward.

What you need to know from Tuesday (May 5)

— A new report out of Ohio suggests that many of the workers dubbed “essential” during the COVID-19 crisis live near the poverty line. That includes home health aides in the state.

— President Trump suggested on Tuesday the White House’s coronavirus task force could be shut down and replaced with “something in a different form,” The New York Times reported. The news comes as the U.S. moves into what the president called “Phase 2” of the country’s response strategy.

— ConcertoHealth, a California-based provider of in-home care, is working with health departments in Washington state to expand community- and home-based COVID-19 testing for at-risk and vulnerable populations.

— Respiratory therapists have played an outsized role in the fight against COVID-19. Not only are they critically important for patient care, but they also deal hands-on with vital equipment for the patients, which greatly increases their risk of contracting the virus.

— Home health and hospice deal flow has been uprooted due to the COVID-19 virus, according to Irving Levin Associates. April 2020 saw 66% less deals than the same month a year ago.

— The American Health Care Association (AHCA) and the National Center for Assisted Living (NACL) sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Tuesday to request $10 billion in emergency funding. The funding, the organizations said, would go to nursing homes and assisted living communities to assist them during the COVID-19 outbreak. Additionally, they asked for further support in regards to testing and additional PPE.

— A 29-year-old single mother in Florida is recovering after battling COVID-19. The woman credits her primary care doctor, who helped establish home health services through Baptist Health. “The home health care nurses were just amazing and they truly are heroes,” she told Action News Jax reporters

What you need to know from Monday (May 4)

— The Trump administration announced Friday that it would be replacing the HHS inspector general, who had highlighted issues with its COVID-19 response in an early April report. The administration nominated Jason Weida to take over the position. Weida previously worked in the Office of Legal Policy.

— It’s not just the home health industry that is looking for more federal support. Last week, the CEO of the National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) told Hospice News that while NHPCO has appreciated the Trump administration’s efforts thus far, more help is needed as the hospice community continues to deal with the COVID-19 crisis.

— Having amassed tens of thousands of deaths since March, nursing homes are pushing for states to grant them emergency protection against an influx of lawsuits claiming they provided insufficient care. According to AP News, at least 15 states have enacted some sort of protection against COVID-19-related lawsuits for nursing homes. Home health and home care providers may push for similar protections moving forward.

— Home-based care providers and their patients continue to be hit hard by the COVID-19 virus. But in-home care is still not given the attention it deserves, Politico reiterated.

— Though progress has been made, ensuring caregiver safety is still an issue nationwide. A Colorado home care worker, for example, claims she has not received coronavirus training and pays for her own PPE.

For daily updates from the week of April 27, click here.

For daily updates from the week of April 20, click here.

For daily updates from the week of April 13, click here.

For daily updates from the week of April 6, click here.

For daily updates from the week of March 30, click here.

For daily updates from the week of March 23, click here.

For daily updates from the week of March 16, click here.

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