A subsidiary of Newton, Massachusetts-based Atrius Health, VNA Care is a non-profit provider of home health and hospice services, providing care for more than 50,000 patients each year.

Chaffee took time away from her schedule to speak with Home Health Care News about her goals for the organization, and why the industry needs more collaboration between all players in the care continuum.

Discuss your interest in pursuing this role at VNA care.

It’s a role I’ve been preparing for, for the last 30 years to work with an organization that is the size of VNA Care and that has a partner with an accountable care organization (ACO) that is very successful. I’m really excited about that opportunity. I am a person who likes to be busy and likes to start new programs, and I think that this is an opportunity to expand upon new things that can be helpful in the health care environment.

Before you joined VNA Care, you served as president and CEO of Porch Light/VNA Home Care. How did that experience help you, as you transition into this new role with VNA Care?

I had been with Porch Light for eight years, and we put new processes in place, new electronic medical records, grew programs, had a merger with the Chicopee VNA. We had a branding process, renamed the organization … and we have a lot of good programs in place, a lot of good processes in place, and I believe that we could duplicate those processes. Porch Light is a five-star agency. We grew it to a five-star agency with the boots on the ground.

What is your plan for growing the VNA Care brand?

VNA care is located throughout the states of Massachusetts, and we’ll continue to look at opportunities to grow VNA Care. Through partnerships with Atrius, I believe that that expansion will definitely be able to be accomplished.

What excites you most about this role?

[Atrius’] new payment systems out there for home health and hospice. It’s very important to [not only] follow the triple aim and control costs of care, but to provide comprehensive care. With the specialty programs that VNA Care can provide to Atrius in partnership with the physicians there, I believe that’s a win-win for all people in the communities that we serve.

It seems like 2017 was a pretty challenging year for the home health industry, with respect to regulations from CMS. I’m curious to know your perspective on where you see the industry going this year. What challenges lie ahead?

We have challenges here in Massachusetts with the nurse aide registry. We have challenges with the new conditions of participation (CoPs) being implemented, and making sure that those processes are followed and put into place. I believe that we really are in the midst of an overhaul of the whole health care system, and all the players are trying to figure out where they fit into this system. How will they be able to proceed and financially be sustainable with all the changes and the payment cuts to home health and other post-acute settings?

You mentioned earlier that one thing that’s on your radar is making partnerships across the care continuum with ACOs. How do you plan to pursue partnerships for VNA Care.

We’re excited about growing the programs that we have in place. Some of them have just started, some of them have been in place for a while; but just taking a look at every opportunity is available to do something to help with the specialties, whether it’s clients with COPD who have respiratory issues, being able to send respiratory therapists into the home to help these patients with those chronic conditions. I really think the sky’s the limit; there are so many opportunities out there for us and getting into the organization and seeing where we want to focus with all of the clinical managers and the partners we have is going to be how we’re going to develop that.

We spoke earlier about what industry issues are on your radar. But if you were able to change one thing about the home health industry as a whole, what would it be?

I would say the collaboration piece—that people really have a full understanding of what VNAs do, because many people don’t understand the breadth of what the nurses, therapists and home health aides do in a VNA. Until they utilize our system or have the need for it, I don’t think [people] understand the breadth of what Visiting Nurse organizations can do for patients in their homes.

I’m assuming education plays a huge component in that, no?

Absolutely. It’s educating physician practices, educating family members. You have to remember that there has been a huge culture change in home health care. And so, if you were a nurse 25 years ago, you could go into a patient’s home who had chronic illnesses and you could pretty much put 24-hour care in a home that was funded by insurance. That has changed. So, even though the practitioners understand that change, people in the communities don’t. … The practices have changed so much that people are not aware of that. It’s not just the culture of health care that has to change, it’s the culture of families understanding how the changes affect them.

Looking ahead as you get settled in your new role, where do you see yourself three months from now? Six months from now?

We will be implementing a new electronic medical record, so that’s going to be a big focus for the first three months. Getting to know all of my staff; it’s important to me that they know who I am and that I know who they are and that we can learn what each other’s strengths are so that we could capitalize on them to empower people to do their jobs in a way that they feel comfortable to be working at VNA Care.

Written by Carlo Calma

The post New VNA Care CEO Plans to Seize ACO Opportunities appeared first on Home Health Care News.

Corina Tracy has been on the frontlines of end-of-life care throughout her career, serving in roles such as clinical manager, director of clinical services, executive director, and in executive positions. In 2003, she joined Brentwood, Tennessee-based Compassus, an in-home and facility-based hospice provider with a footprint spanning 30 states. She has served as executive vice president and COO since 2015.

Home Health Care News caught up with Tracy to discuss the timing of hospice admissions, the obstacles to improving end-of-life care, and why Compassus is striving to measure the well-being even of terminally ill patients.

According to current industry standards, when is hospice care administered or introduced to terminally ill patients?

That’s extremely variable. Really, hospice is introduced depending on an individual clinician’s judgment. Sometimes, it’s never introduced. So, there isn’t an algorithm, so to speak… If I go into the doctor’s office and I have high blood pressure, there are evidence-based ways to handle that; there’s a process that, generally, most practitioners will follow. When it comes to [hospice care], it’s just not practiced that way. Some clinicians will bring it up early, talk about goals of care, advanced directives, and some never do.

You’ve spoken about how the biggest barrier to end-of-life care is “being more mainstream.” Can you elaborate more on this?

It’s a bit about what I was talking about with evidence-based medicine … When I say it’s not mainstream, there’s a lot of data that we have that says if [certain] things happen, it means that you have a limited prognosis, and we don’t let the data, the evidence, trigger the conversations.

In my view, when I say it should become more mainstream, it means that as soon as we believe that’s the case—if I’m diagnosed with a disease based on medical statistics where, if it runs its normal course, I have a six-month or less life expectancy—then having a hospice conversation should automatically be what happens next.

You mention that data is not being utilized more in the industry and that there’s a lack of predictive analytics. Is that the reason why hospice is introduced so late for patients?

I think it’s a big reason why, and I think there’s a lot of opportunity. It’s a dilemma … Never do we want to get to a place where we’re removing autonomy from a clinician; that’s where the rubber meets the road. They’re humans; we want humans dealing with humans. I am talking about putting data in a clinician’s hands so they can feel more confident about their decision. … I would never suggest that data would replace the clinical judgment, but it would be a trigger and a reminder to the clinician that those conversations need to happen.

As an organization, we want to be more helpful. Not everybody has the same skillset or will to have end-of-life conversations; but there are a lot of resources for clinicians to have different kinds of conversations.

You mentioned earlier that a conversation around hospice is a “high-risk conversation.” In what ways can providers initiate that conversation?

Many years ago, I met a wonderful palliative care physician, and she’s used the term “medically possible.” I think it’s a great and honest way to approach patients about what’s going on with them and helps hope remain, because this is what’s medically possible, it doesn’t mean that aren’t miracles or things that happen outside of medicine. … There [may be] nothing else medically possible that we can do [but] there are many other things that we can do from an emotional, spiritual support side.

Honestly, at the end of the day, that’s what people want to know. As health care providers, I think we have to remember that we live and breathe this every day and we all speak code. We have so many acronyms and we understand that, but [for the patient] this is so brand new for them. They really need to understand what’s medically possible and what other options are out there. I think [we need to be talking] about it in that way and making sure that there’s some support they’re given and that it’s not expected to be a one-and-done conversation. People will have a lot of questions and if there’s nobody that can answer their questions, I think that’s when fear comes into play.

In what ways can technology like remote monitoring platforms play a role in providing hospice care? How do you achieve this at Compassus?

We really think remote monitoring and technology can play a part.

When people think about telemedicine or remote monitoring now, I think oftentimes they think about vital signs and basic medical intervention. When we think of remote monitoring and the way technology can really help with hospice patients, we think about well-being.

We have this saying that we want to make life wonderful for our hospice patients, not just less horrible. And what that means is when people think of hospice, they think we’re really good at controlling pain. We are, but we’re more than that. People at the end of their life need more than that, and deserve more than that. Controlling pain is what we have to do and should do … Where remote technology comes in is helping monitor almost emotional symptoms and activity that bring people joy.

We’re piloting this idea of capturing and measuring well-being and distress; so, not just symptoms, but how we capture and measure well-being so we can help patients and families be higher on a well-being score. The best way to improve something is to measure it. … We take an inventory with patients and families about things that make them feel happy.

What must the hospice care industry do to address this trend of introducing hospice care so late? What are some solutions?

Definitely, partnering with organizations that have big data and helping figure out the analytics, the triggers. I think that is something that the hospice industry can and should do.

When you have a patient that comes on, we have the end of the story, and when you can take the data that hospice has on length of stay and the symptoms that we’ve seen on admission and work with other organizations that have a lot of data, you can start to see a pathway of when a patient should be referred and what are the triggers and link it to length of stay … Hospice has to be a part of that type of conversation for predictive analytics. We need to collect data, we need to aggregate data from a hospice industry.

We’re a small industry and we kind of hold things tight; that’s one of the things the industry has to do, is be more open about data. … I think the other thing that the industry can do is just be a proponent of sponsoring [goal-centered] types of care, advance planning, advance directives, really be as much of a champion as we can about the things that happen before hospice care.

How can hospice providers play a more active role in the care continuum?

What worries me about health care is the aligning of the incentives. Sometimes, it feels like in some cases, many different providers are taking care of and targeting the same group of patients. So that doesn’t fare well for good partnerships on a continuum. I think using data and sharing data amongst the continuum, I think we all need to do that and do it better so we really can get the right care for the right patient at the right time and help them move along the continuum.

I think the biggest barrier to that is incentives not always being aligned, and sometimes it’s hard to tell what the right care is at the right time, what the best care is for the patient.

Written by Carlo Calma

The post Compassus COO: Hospice Must Become More Mainstream appeared first on Home Health Care News.

Just like in the U.S., the country is facing a growing aging population. In 2011, India’s population census tallied 104 million elderly persons age 60 years old and above, according to a report published by the country’s Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

The country’s aging population is expected to only increase in time, with the demographic projected to grow up to roughly 300 million in the next 10 years, according to Varsha Tagare, MD, managing director of Qualcomm Ventures India, based in Mumbai.

Qualcomm Ventures is the investment arm of Qualcomm Incorporated, a San Diego-based technology firm that specializes in the development of mobile platforms for use in a variety of settings, like health care. Including the U.S. and India, Qualcomm Ventures invests in companies in markets including China, Korea, Israel, Europe and Latin America.

“Home health care in India is a large market with growth opportunities,” Tagare told Home Health Care News via e-mail. “It had been an unorganized market in India for a long time, being served by standalone, small players; [however] the need for quality home care has been there, always.”

Reducing pressure

Recognizing this need, Qualcomm Ventures India recently participated in a $26 million Series C funding round for home health provider Portea Medical.

Based in Bangalore, India, Portea is a private-pay provider of a variety of health care services, including primary care, chronic disease management, elder care and post-operative care in the home setting. In 2015, the company’s footprint spanned 24 cities, servicing roughly 50,000 patients, according to TechCrunch.

In previous funding rounds, Portea raised $37.5 million in 2015, and $9 million in 2013. To date, Portea has raised roughly $72.5 million in funding, according to Qualcomm Ventures.

On a broader scale, the country’s health care landscape continues to experience tremendous growth.

Its hospital and diagnostic centers attracted foreign direct investment worth $4.3 billion between April 2000 and March 2017, according to India Brand Equity Foundation, a trust established by the country’s Department of Commerce and Industry.

“We were impressed by the home health care opportunity in India and the strength of the Portea management team,” Tagare said, regarding Qualcomm’s investment in the home health provider.

A draw to Portea’s model for investors like Qualcomm is its utilization of mobile platform in delivering care, according to Tagare.

“[Portea’s] technology-driven approach was built to scale with a strong mobility focus,” Tagare said. “Family members could monitor their loved one’s health through the Portea app and know their health status. Blood tests, diabetes care, medicine delivery, physiotherapy can be initiated [via mobile], along with the ability to chat with doctors and access to health records.”

The utilization of mobile platforms by home health companies like Portea eases any logistical burdens felt by the country’s health care providers, Tagare explained.

“In India, it reduces the pressure on hospitals, doctors and caregivers to focus on critical patients in hospitals, while remotely monitoring patient vitals who are in home health care,” she said.

Focus on private care

A contributing factor to the strain on India’s health care and senior care capacity is the country’s adoption of universal health care, according to David Kaplan, CFA, director of New York-based investment firm S&P Global Ratings’ health care group.

“I think some of that is the for-profit nature of the U.S. health care system. Here, a lot of the nursing homes are for-profit … therefore, you find adequate capacity in the U.S., providing that there is the reimbursement to make it profitable,” Kaplan told HHCN. “Whereas, in countries where there is socialized medicine—and it’s not just India—a lot of [them] have waitlists for providers and for nursing homes.”

For Kaplan, this is the reason why home health is growing in popularity in India.

“Home-based care really is much, much cheaper,” he said. “You’re really just paying for the nurse or the aide [and] there’s no capital that has to be invested. It’s the cheapest side of care.”

The rapid rise in growth of home health companies like Portea in India is no surprise for investors like Kaplan.

Apart from Portea, Mumbai-based home health provider Care24 raised $4 million in 2014 during its Series A funding round from Haryana, India investment firm SAIF Partners. Similarly, in 2016, Mumbai-based Zoctr, a home health startup founded by Nidhi Saxena, raised $1 million in funding from the founder of SPA Capital Sandeep Narwal and founder of Organic Wellness Krishna Guptain, in addition to a few other angel investors.

“Demographics are driving continued demand, in terms of a population that’s aging and people are living longer,” he said. “Thanks to many of the medical developments in recent decades, the demand is increasing and, certainly, if the demand is there and the opportunity is there, it’s not surprising that there would be an interest or capital available to support that.”

As the U.S. home health industry continues to grapple with a plethora of regulations, Kaplan foresees a growth in interest in a private-pay home care model.

“There certainly is a demand for a home health kind of private-pay element,” he said. “That could be an area of growth over the coming years [as there are] more people using home health services out of pocket where needed that I think we haven’t seen so much in the past.”

This is certainly the case for patients in India, according to Tagare.

“With purchasing power growing across the board, demand for quality health care has increased significantly in India,” she said. “There has been a steady rise in corporate hospital setup in India with focus on quality healthcare. As a result, patients are looking for quality healthcare at home and are willing to pay for it.”

Written by Carlo Calma

The post Why India’s Home Health Start-Ups Are Raising Serious Funding appeared first on Home Health Care News.

Pena, 82, of Laredo, Texas, was charged in an 11-count indictment with co-conspirators Rodney Mesquias, 47, of San Antonio, Texas; Henry McInnis, 47, of Harlingen, Texas; and Jose Garza, 40, of Harlingen, Texas.

At the time of press, Pena is being held at the Webb County, Texas, jail without bond, according to local media.

Kickbacks for referrals

From 2009 through the filing of the indictment, Mesquias owned and operated Harlingen, Texas-based Merida Health Care Group, a compilation of health care entities that provided hospice and health care services. McInnis and Garza helped control and operate the various entities, while Pena, who is also a licensed physician, served as the medical director of Merida Group.

According to the allegations in the indictment, Mesquias, McInnis and Garza caused kickbacks and bribes to be paid to medical directors, including Pena, for the Merida Group’s affiliated entities in return for certifying that patients qualified for services when they did not, as well as for referring patients for such services.

Among a slew of other allegations, the indictment also alleges that the four individuals also fraudulently kept patients on hospice services for multiple years in order to increase revenue from Medicare, according to the Justice Department.

In regards to Pena, the indictment also states he gave a false statement to the FBI and obstructed health care investigation. In a few incidences, a confidential source from the health care industry met with Pena at city hall and other locations where the source allegedly paid Pena a total of $5,000 in cash kickbacks for illegal referrals of hospice patients. Pena also allegedly told a cooperating witness that, in regards to hospice patients, “the way you make money is by keeping them alive as long as possible.”

Following these events, Pena was interviewed by the FBI and denied accepting kickbacks in exchange for patient referrals. The indictment further alleges that he instructed the confidential source to lie to the FBI in the event he/she was interviewed about the kickbacks he received, according to the Justice Department.

Mesquias, McInnis, Garza and Pena were each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Mesquias and McInnis were charged with six counts of health care fraud, and Garza and Pena were each charged with one count of health care fraud.

Further, Pena was also charged with one count of false statements and one count of obstruction of a health care investigation. Mesquias and McInnis were each charged with one count of obstruction of justice.

Written by Carlo Calma

The post Texas Mayor Involved in $150 Million Home Health Fraud Scheme appeared first on Home Health Care News.

Health care industry veteran Tammy York Day has been appointed president of the Louisville Healthcare CEO Council (LHCC), effective January 9.

The council is a partnership of Louisville, Kentucky-based health care leaders, with the goal of revolutionizing the city’s health care economy. Among the members are some notable home health care figures, including Benjamin Breier, CEO of Kindred Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE: KND) and Bruce Broussard, CEO of Humana, Inc. (NYSE: HUM).

York Day joins the council after a 21-year tenure with Delta Dental, where she most recently served as CEO.

“Tammy’s track record in business operations, systems integration, marketing campaigns and successful community initiatives made her a standout candidate during our search process. She brings the entrepreneurial mind-set that we were looking for in an individual to launch the CEO Council,” Mark Carter, CEO of Passport Health, said in a press release.

The first item on her agenda will be to formalize the operations of the council, create brand identity and officially launch the council with a special event.

For the first year, the LHCC will lease space from Greater Louisville, Inc. (GLI), the city’s metro chamber of commerce. The council is completely autonomous but understands the benefits of collaboration with GLI, Heath Enterprises Network (HEN), Louisville Forward and other community investors.

Savii Welcomes New CEO, CTO

Savii Care has welcomed veteran start-up executive Sean Fitzgerald as its new CEO. Based in Raleigh, North Carolina, Savii is a producer of an automation app for the in-home care industry. As part of the appointment, Fitzgerald also joins Savii’s board of directors.

The company’s co-founder, Michelle Harper, is stepping aside and taking on the role of chief product officer, according to the company.

Fitzgerald was most recently chief operating officer and CFO of The GenSight Group, a Naples, Florida-based portfolio management and workflow software as a service (SaaS) provider. Previously, he served as executive vice president of Washington, D.C.-based education technology company, EverFi. He also served as senior vice president at Lehman Brothers and vice president at Bank of America.

In another leadership move, Savii named David Robinson as chief technology officer (CTO). Robinson was a principal engineer at Liberty Lake, Washington-based tech company Itron Inc., and also lead developer at LMG Holdings, a Blue Ash, Ohio-based provider of ignition interlocking systems.

In addition to appointments, Savii also closed on new financing, the amount of which was not disclosed. Savii is backed by Cary, North Carolina-based seed fund Cofounders Capital. In an SEC filing, the company disclosed raising more than $400,000 in December; a year prior, Savii raised nearly $2 million.

Jakoboski Steps Up to Executive Role for Transforming Age

Bellevue, Washington-based Transforming Age has promoted Eve Jakoboski to vice president of administration. Transforming Age is a national non-profit provider of senior housing.

She brings more than 21 years of human resources, operations and accounting experience to her new position. Previously, she served as the organization’s director of human resources. Afterwards, Jakoboski was promoted to vice president of human resources. Jakoboski joined Transforming Age in 2014.

In addition to overseeing human resources, risk management, benefits and payroll, in her new role, Jakoboski will be responsible for corporate office operations and administration.

Partnership for Medicaid Home-Based Care Elects New Officers, Board of Directors

The Partnership for Medicaid Home-Based Care (PMHC) has announced that David J. Totaro, Darby Anderson and Gale Bohling were re-elected to serve two-year terms through 2019 as PMHC officers. In addition, Tim Rogers was elected to service as second vice chairman through 2018.

The PMHC executive committee and board of directors for the 2017-2018 term are as follows:

• Chairman – David J. Totaro, BAYADA Home Health Care
• First Vice Chairman – Darby Anderson, Addus HomeCare, Inc.
• Second Vice Chairman – Tim Rogers, Council of State Home Care Associations
• Secretary – Sherl Brand, RN, BSN, CareCentrix
• Treasurer – Gale Bohling, ResCare Home Care

PMHC Board Members Include: Ben Bledsoe, Consumer Direct Care Network; John Cullen, Sutter Care at Home; Merrill A. Friedman, Anthem; Lawrence Kraska, Interim HealthCare Inc.; Richard Keller, All Metro Health Care; Michael Monson, Centene; Sarah Myers, CAE, LHC Group, Inc.; Linda Savino, VNA Health Group; Sean Schwinghammer, Caring Associates, Inc.; Carol H. Steckel, MPH, WellCare Health Plans.

PMHC is a collaboration of organizations representing home care agencies, state and national home care associations, managed care organizations (MCOs) and other payers, and business affiliates whose work aims to improve the quality and integrity of Medicaid funded home- and community-based services (HCBS).

Alliance Homecare Welcomes New Director of Nursing Administration

New York-based Alliance Homecare, a home health provider serving individuals and families in New York City, Long Island, Westchester and the Lower Hudson Valley, has appointed Juli Abate as director of nursing administration.

Abate brings more than 25 years of nursing experience and over 17 years of management experience to Alliance. In her new role, she will lead the company’s nursing program and manage the clinical care of patients.

Prior joining Alliance, Abate worked at the Visiting Nurse Association Health Group as a hospice regional director, and later as regional director of pediatric and infusion care. In this role, Abate oversaw and managed the pediatric homecare and infusion programs, which had an average of 200 patients.

A registered nurse, Abate is a nationally certified clinical nurse leader, awarded by the Commission on Nurse Certification of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. She is also a New Jersey choice master trainer from the New Jersey Department of Human Services, Division of Aging Services, Office of Community Choice Options.

Paradoa Assumes Adviser Role for Nurse on Call

Nurse On Call has welcomed Dr. Amberly Paradoa as the newest member to its management team. Nurse on Call is a Vero Beach, Florida-based provider of home health and in-home rehabilitation services.

In her post, Paradoa will provide consultation and guidance for programs and policies, especially in the area of patient care and related needs.

She practices at Advanced Foot & Ankle of Indian River County as a board-certified podiatrist with additional advanced certification in reconstructive rear foot and ankle surgery, specializing in complex deformities.

She also has hospital privileges at Indian River Medical Center, Sebastian River and HealthSouth.

Further, she serves on the board of directors for the American Board Foot & Ankle Surgery organization, and has played a role as one of the founding members for the local Indian River County chapter for the Florida Podiatric Medical Association.

National Alliance for Caregiving Appoints President & CEO

The National Alliance for Caregiving has named C. Grace Whiting, J.D., its new president and CEO.

The Bethesda, Maryland-based non-profit organization focuses on research and advocacy on behalf of family caregivers.

Prior to joining the organization, Whiting most recently served as chief operating officer at the Alliance. She succeeds founding president and CEO, Gail Gibson Hunt, who will now serve as an advisor to the organization.

Hunt founded the Alliance in 1996 with a coalition of national aging and long-term care organizations. During her tenure, the Alliance has undertaken national research studies on caregiving, including the Caregiving in the U.S. series with AARP. Hunt supported the development of a national network of more than 80 caregiving coalitions in state and local communities. She also serves as the Chair of the International Alliance of Carer Organizations, a global coalition of fifteen nations dedicated to advancing the needs of caregivers around the world.

Marsicano Assumes Director Role for Well Care Home Health

In-home care company Well Care Home Health has appointed Jaimee Marsicano, RN, as its new senior director of home health operations.

Previously, she served as the interim senior director for two months prior to accepting the permanent role. In her post, Marsicano oversees daily operations for the company’s home health divisions and plays a role in strategic planning, organizational design.

Marsicano has been a member of the company’s senior leadership team since 2014. Prior executive roles with Well Care include director of clinical excellence, as well as director of performance improvement and education.

She joined Well Care Home Health in 2010 as a registered nurse case manager, where she was responsible for the management of patients, their care plans and the utilization of clinical resources.

Before joining the company, she worked in the surgical and trauma units of Valhalla, New York’s Westchester Medical Center. In this post, she served as nurse manager on a 43-bed surgical/trauma unit and was responsible for developing care plans, maintaining practice standards, implementing quality improvement projects, and ensuring employee competence related to job performance expectations.

Written by Carlo Calma

The post Movers & Shakers: Louisville Healthcare CEO Council, Savii Care appeared first on Home Health Care News.

As part of the acquisition, the provider is pushing forward with a new name: Interim HealthCare & Hospice of The Upstate.

The acquisition was effective January 1, 2018. The price of the transaction was not disclosed by either party.

A growing footprint

A franchisee of Interim HealthCare, the national provider with more than 300 independently owned franchises, Interim HealthCare of The Upstate was established in 1979 by Charyl and Ray Schroeder. The franchise provides home health, private duty and hospice care services.

Interim HealthCare of The Upstate is also located in Greenville, South Carolina. The in-home care franchisee services six counties throughout South Carolina, including Cherokee, Spartanburg, Greenville, Pickens, Anderson and Oconee. The name change is reflective of the company’s geographic growth since its inception, according to a company press release.

Charyl Schroeder will remain as CEO and member of the company’s board of directors, while Ray Schroeder will serve as consultant.

The Schroeder’s continued involvement post acquisition was an important strategy for InvestSouth Manager Chris Lupo.

“Charyl and her husband, Ray, created the culture of the company and have led its growth and success over the decades,” Lupo told Home Health Care News via e-mail. “We look forward to what she and her team will continue to accomplish.”

Further, Interim will continue to operate as it has historically, Lupo explained, saying “We expect employees, patients and our partners to see very little change.”

InvestSouth’s acquisition of Interim HealthCare of The Upstate was rooted in the provider’s local reputation in the in-home care industry, added Lupo. In addition to Interim HealthCare of The Upstate, InvestSouth counts BCBS Doctors Care in Conway, South Carolina among its health care investments.

“Being local, we were familiar with the company, the owners and the many valuable services being performed in our community,” Lupo said. “Healthcare is a business we generally understand and we’re fortunate to have the opportunity to invest in a local company with such a great reputation.”

Moving forward, InvestSouth aims to build on the foundation that Interim HealthCare of The Upstate has laid for itself in the community.

“InvestSouth intends for Interim HealthCare of The Upstate to honor the legacy the Schroeders have created,” Lupo said. “This company has been about local people taking care of local people and we are here to support all of the wonderful employees who give their best every day in that pursuit.”

Written by Carlo Calma

The post InvestSouth Acquires Interim HealthCare Franchisee appeared first on Home Health Care News.

“This is a very good, mid-sized acquisition,” Daniel Buning, executive vice president of operations at AccentCare, told Home Health Care News. “There’s no buyer’s regret.”

Based in Odessa, Texas, Nurses Unlimited is a provider of personal care services, Medicare-certified home health and private duty nursing. The move ultimately strengthens AccentCare’s presence in the state, according to Buning. The company has more than 60 locations in the state. The acquisition price was not disclosed.

Across 11 states, AccentCare operates regional brands, including Alliance For Health, AccentCare of New York and Texas Home Health. Nurses Unlimited, however, will maintain its brand name, as well as its local offices’ leadership.

“What this acquisition [does is] allow us to now provide personal care services in every county in the state of Texas,” he said.

The merger, which went into effect December 29, is reflective of the company’s tactics for initiating growth.

“[Our strategy is] kind of dual pronged—organic growth through forming strong relationships in the market and then, for the acquisitions, we look for strong providers in the market to expand our capability within our markets,” Buning said.

Complementary culture

The acquisition of Nurses Unlimited will add approximately 3,000 employees and 26 private care offices to the AccentCare workforce; meanwhile, roughly 3,700 clients and patients of Nurses Unlimited will be absorbed by the company, according to Buning.

The sale of Nurses Unlimited coincides with the retirement of CEO Bobby Laughry, according to Beth DaSilva, president of San Diego-based health care mergers and acquisitions firm Fleetridge Pacific, which represented Nurses Unlimited during the transaction.

“Joining [AccentCare] is a great opportunity for Nurses Unlimited’s growth,” Laughry said in a press release.

“Nurses Unlimited felt like AccentCare was aligned with their mission and goals and how they treat their employees,” DaSilva told HHCN. “They felt that their employees and patients would be well taken care of.”

Sharing the same vision is a crucial piece to AccentCare’s acquisition strategy, in which its executives consider more than just a prospective company’s geographic location.

“Equally, if not more important to that, is we look for companies that are complementary to our culture and to our operating principles and values,” Buning said. “When we met with Bobby and his team back in 2017, we could tell right away this was an organization that was well run, had a great set of employees and a strong, complementary culture.”

Another important aspect about the acquisition was the importance for Nurses Unlimited to maintain its own identity.

“That’s an important part of our strategy because Nurses Unlimited has a strong brand in the market where they operate,” Buning said. “It’s our intent to still operate them as Nurses Unlimited because of their strong relationship and strong reputation in the market, among both clients and payers.”

2018 moves

In addition to its acquisition of Nurses Unlimited, AccentCare marked its purchase of Jackson, Mississippi-based Sta-Home Home Health & Hospice as another significant transaction in 2017.

In terms of joint-venture (JV) moves, the company inked partnerships last year with health system UCLA Health to serve patients in the greater Los Angeles area, as well as with Baylor Scott & White Health, a non-profit health care system in Texas.

With these ventures under the company’s belt, Buning explained that AccentCare aims to build on this momentum in 2018.

“Our JVs and relationships are going to allow us to grow organically in our strategic markets,” Buning said. “We are continuously filling a pipeline for acquisitions in our markets and we’re continuously looking at opportunities at all the states that we operate in.”

AccentCare aims to fully transition Nurses Unlimited into its system over the next six to eight months, according to Buning.

“We’ve got a plan for where it makes sense to integrate their capabilities with ours,” he said. “[But] they’re operating very well and we’re not rushing in to fix anything. We’ll work with them to provide opportunities for us to work together.”

Written by Carlo Calma

The post AccentCare Feels No Buyer’s Remorse in Texas Acquisition appeared first on Home Health Care News.

“I really went into that experience thinking I knew a lot about our owners, about the franchise system,” Greenbaum told Home Health Care News. “But what I recognized was I didn’t really know our employees very well. I didn’t know the people and stories behind the face of our brand—the people who were providing the service delivery to the customer.”

This lesson on employee recognition is one Greenbaum aims to apply as he transitions to his new role as CEO this month for home care services provider ComForCare.

The Bloomfield Hills, Michigan-based company operates 200 independently owned and operated in-home care agencies across the U.S., Canada and the U.K.

“[The experience] informs me in a way, now that I’ve moved into this role with ComForCare, to really be thoughtful about the most important person in our organization next to our clients, and that’s the caregivers,” Greenbaum said. “These are the people who are taking care of Mom and Dad and our loved ones.”

The impact of service

Greenbaum’s appointment is the result of ComForCare’s nationwide search for a new CEO. He will serve as co-CEO with ComForCare and At Your Side Home Care Founder Mark Armstrong during a short transition period, after which Armstrong will take on the role of chairman of the board for ComForCare, according to a press release.

Greenbaum’s name was put in the running through his relationship with the Riverside Companies, a private equity firm that invested in ComForCare in the summer of 2017. When he was presented with the opportunity, Greenbaum jumped at the chance, keeping in mind his own experience with senior care.

“I think, like a lot of people, I had faced challenges with how to provide the right care for my aging parents,  so it hits very close to home,” he said.

Greenbaum brings 25 years of experience with franchising to his role at ComForCare. During his tenure with PostNet, he grew the company to become a 660-unit franchise system. A certified franchise executive, Greenbaum has served as chairman of the International Franchise Association (IFA) in 2008, receiving the organization’s Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2003.

Unlike his previous franchising ventures, however, what makes the opportunity with ComForCare unique is the special role the company plays in providing quality care for its clients, Greenbaum noted.

“It’s not just the delivery of a service or a product … It’s nothing near the impact of having a service experience with a loved one, whether it’s medical or non-medical service,” he said.

Leveraging technology

While the printing and marketing industry is worlds apart from home care, one commonality Greenbaum has noticed is the growing role of technology—an area where he feels he can bring a wealth of knowledge.

“One of the things I learned from starting my own business is that a business has to evolve with consumer needs and technology,” he said. “I honestly believe that we’re seeing that same opportunity in the home health care space. There are all sorts of innovations now in technology which allow for monitoring; there are all sorts of opportunities in this space to provide more value to make the clients feel more cared for, safer—to feel more dignified with the type of care that we provide.”

Greenbaum is not blind to the fact that he’s still new to the industry, and says he is eager to learn more about the issues affecting franchisees and the overall organization.

“I will use this year as a foundational year,” he said. “There’s a lot to this business, especially with laws and the care we provide, and the work that we do.”

Getting to know the nuances of the industry and every moving part of ComForCare is crucial to growing the business—a goal that Greenbaum has already written on his to-do list.

“My plans are to double this organization in size and revenue. The question there would be, ‘Over what period of time?'” he said. “Clearly, a three- to five-year window for that would be in my objective, but to make that decision on timing has to do with me fully understanding the needs of the organization.”

As he pursues his mission of advancement and company growth, Greenbaum remains cognizant of how this goal gets accomplished, keeping in mind the lessons he learned on Undercover Boss.

“What strikes me as really special about doing this work and being a part of this organization is the people that are attracted to this business—they have servant mentalities and attitudes,” he said. “It’s really incredibly humbling to have come through this organization and to see the kind of people and the kind of service that’s being given, and to have an opportunity to be a part of that. I’m extremely excited about the future with this company.”

Written by Carlo Calma

The post ComForCare Taps Seasoned Franchise Executive for CEO Post appeared first on Home Health Care News.

Founded in 1966, Interim HealthCare provides a range of in-home care services, including private duty care, home health and hospice. In addition, the company also provides health care staffing services to other health care facilities, as well as schools and governmental agencies.

Interim HealthCare is a national franchisor of home care, and under their franchise model, the company has roughly 330 franchise locations spread across 44 states, and a workforce of approximately 40,000 health care professionals.

Home Health Care News caught up with Kraska to discuss his strategies for combating the industry’s ever-persistent recruiting and retention problems, as well as industry issues he’s keeping a close eye on in the new year.

What are the unique ways in which Interim delivers in-home care? What would you say sets your company apart?

There are a couple of things that we think make Interim unique. One of them is the fact that we’re a franchise model, so each of these locations [are] owned and operated by franchisees that live and work in the community where they operate. We think that gives us a unique approach because the folks that run these offices, it’s their own personal business. As an organization, one of the things that we really concentrate on is the recruiting and retention piece around the caregiver. That will define success for all companies, and we have a great team in place that is solely focused on ensuring that our franchisees have the tools and support they need to do this.

You bring up recruiting and retention, which has become the biggest challenge for a lot of providers. What are your strategies in combating this challenge?

I spent about 10 years of my career running a large, national health care staffing company. In the 10 years that I spent doing that, I learned a lot about recruiting and retention and how to actually become really great at identifying and keeping health care professionals. At Interim, we’re trying to apply a lot of the same principles that the large hospitals and even the large staffing companies have been doing for years to really focus on helping our offices become the employer of choice in their market. So, we’ve developed training programs and tools to really help our owners with identifying and recruiting really great caregivers that truly want to work in the industry. … In addition to recruiting, the equally big issue is around retention. If you get really great at recruiting, you may lose sight of figuring out how to keep them, or it’s just going to be a revolving door. At Interim, a lot of our focus for our owners is around training in both of those areas. It can’t be one without the other.

What are some of the best practices you follow in terms of retaining top talent?

There are a lot of programs that we’ve developed internally. I think one of the core ones is … we make sure that the owners do a good job when they hire somebody to really onboard them to the culture of what Interim is and the fact that they have a lot of pride, not just in our brand, but in the type of work that we provide out in the communities where they’re working. We think that that cultural piece is very important so that they really feel a strong bond with Interim and the managers and owners that they work with. Also, a lot of our work around retention is trying to make sure that we’re attracting the part-time workforce, because not everybody who works in a home care office has to be a full-time employee. … Part of our retention is around culture, but the other part is really around a flexible work force and being flexible with our hours and our ability to work with people on their schedules.

With the start of the new year, what are the top industry challenges in 2018?

Anybody that you talk to that provides home care will likely touch on the movement around family members and patients really wanting to age in place. … We’re watching that trend very closely on how do we develop the right approach and the right training for our staff to allow people to age at home and age in place as long as they can? The other trend focuses around home care providers being able to demonstrate outcomes and improved quality in the care they provide. So, we’re doing a lot of work internally with our training and our own internal measurements, looking at our quality measurements and our ability to support our franchisees and being able to demonstrate high quality and improved outcomes with the work that we’re doing. Recruiting and retaining caregivers will continue to be the top of mind for everyone in the industry. Another focus for our industry will be around advances in technology that’s helping with home care, whether it’s helping to offset some of the challenges with recruiting, with things like tele-monitoring and tele-medicine, or even technologies that are helping our caregivers with communicating back to the office or communicating with the patients that they’re taking care of.

On the regulatory front, what issues concern you the most?

I think anybody in health care is always watching the changes in reimbursement trends and what’s happening from a payer perspective. The way I’ve always looked at it is … anybody, whether it’s a hospital that you work with or a family that’s looking for care, they’re always looking for the best quality provider that they can have. We tend to feel that quality is largely driven around caregivers and the type of work our caregivers provide. There’s a lot of discussion around how great home care can really help prevent readmissions. But, we also think that as more and more partnerships are developing between post-acute care providers … there’s a really important place for home care in actually preventing admissions in the first place.

How important is it for in-home care providers to create partnerships with other post-acute care providers? How are you achieving this at Interim HealthCare?

Our philosophy as an organization is we do think that there is an opportunity for more of that to happen, with hospitals and other health care providers partnering more with home health companies. And it’s not just from a discharge perspective; it could really be on the front-end, as well. How do you allow the folks to remain at home as long as possible, without having to be admitted in the hospital? Once they’re discharged, how do you work with the right home health care company to really stabilize the patient, help them get better quickly and prevent them from being readmitted. Doing that in partnership [with other health care providers] is going to be something that continues to be a big trend.

Discuss the role hospice care is playing in post-acute care. 

There’s been a growth in local and national providers for hospice. That’s why it’s an important part of our continuum. Not every one of our owners has a hospice program, but we have large number hospice programs across the U.S. We believe that that is, for many of our owners, a very natural part of the continuum for the patients that they serve. They go from receiving home care until they get to the point in their life where they need to transition into hospice. And our owners, the ones that have hospice programs, are able to seamlessly have the patients transferred into the hospice program so they could spend the last portion of their life, many times, getting treated by the same folks who have been taking care of them previously in home care.

What were the company’s biggest accomplishments for 2017? What are the biggest opportunities for improvement in the new year?

We think we actually made really great progress in 2017 around that recruiting and retention topic. Across the industry, it is the No. 1 thing that people talk about. One of the advantages I think we have is the number of people on our executive team that came out of the staffing industry. So, along with having deep, really great health care experience, we also have some folks who have a really strong staffing background and we’re using a lot of the training, a lot of the techniques from the staffing industry to really help our owners with that recruiting and retention challenge. So, 2017 was a big year for that for us and that will carry into 2018, as well. We’ve also had some really great momentum and progress with helping our owners realize that they could provide more of the continuum of care within their offices. We continue to see expansion in our hospice offering and more of our offices that were doing private duty are moving into the skilled care area.

What are your plans for growing the company in 2018?

We’re very, very optimistic about 2018 for our owners. We think that with this whole trend of aging in place … our owners are very excited about the demand for the work that we do. We’re focused on recruiting and retaining high-quality professionals who can provide high-quality care. I think, organically, our offices are very excited about providing care in their communities and the prospects for additional growth in what we’re doing. But, we also have a number of markets across the U.S. that are still open, so we’ve got franchise development team actively speaking with a number of people about becoming new franchisees with Interim.

Written by Carlo Calma

The post Workforce Initiatives Set Up Interim for Growth in 2018 appeared first on Home Health Care News.

The planned name change took effect at stock market open Tuesday morning.

In addition, the Birmingham, Alabama-based provider of home-based care and operator of inpatient rehabilitation hospitals has officially changed its New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) ticker symbol from “HLS” to “EHC.”

The move is the final step in the company’s rebranding after acquiring Dallas, Texas-based Encompass Home Health and Hospice for $750 million in November 2014.

The unveiling of the Encompass Health brand will involve changing the name and logo across its operations, as well as corporate resources, such as a new website, which is expected to launch February 6, according to HealthSouth’s web page.

Inpatient rehabilitation hospitals and home care agencies will begin transitioning to the Encompass Health name, beginning with locations in Texas, Alabama and Arkansas, on April 1, with local transitions continuing throughout 2018, according to a company press release. Encompass Health expects a company-wide rebrand to be completed by the first quarter of 2019.

While the company is now operating under a new corporate name, it aims to honor its foundational businesses while also advancing its position in the post-acute care realm, according to Encompass Health President and CEO Mark Tarr.

The rebranding also “reinforces our strength as one company,” Tarr added.

“The decision to rebrand as Encompass Health Corporation is the result of a year-long, research-intensive process that helped us understand how our brand could better reflect and support our business strategy, while raising awareness of our company’s strategy and value proposition with all key constituencies,” Tarr said in a press release.

Written by Carlo Calma

Editors Note: A previous version of this article mistakenly cited Augusta, Georgia, as Encompass’s headquarters. Encompass is based in Dallas.

The post New Year, New Name for HealthSouth Corporation appeared first on Home Health Care News.