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Recent News

10/4/2013 3:34:00 PM

Minnesota Signs Memorandum of Understanding with CMS: Becomes Partner in Medicare-Medicaid Dual Eligibles Integration Effort

10/4/2013 3:31:00 PM

“2 Midnights” Rule: What it Means for Home Health Agencies?

10/4/2013 8:32:00 AM

NAHC Members Urged to Share their Face-to-Face Encounter Documentation Denials in a Survey

10/4/2013 8:31:00 AM

Advocates Provide Guides and Tips for New Florida MLTSS Program

10/3/2013 12:41:00 PM

New Leader for Office of National Coordinator for Health IT Announced

10/3/2013 12:36:00 PM

NAHC President Submits Progress Report to the Board

10/2/2013 3:53:00 PM

The Companionship Exemption Explained

Testimonials

In the various roles he has undertaken through the years, Val J. Halamandaris has been a singular driving force behind the policy and program initiatives resulting in the recognition of home health care as a viable alternative to institutionalization. His dedication to consumer advocacy, which enhances the quality of life and dignity of those receiving home health care, merits VNA HealthCare Group’s highest recognition and deepest respect.

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VNA HealthCare Group

I have the highest respect for them, especially for the nurses, aides and therapists, who devote their lives to caring for people with disabilities, the infirm and dying Americans. There are few more noble professions.

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President Barack Obama

Home health care agencies do such a wonderful job in this country helping people to be able to remain at home and allowing them to receive services

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U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) Chair, Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee

Heath care at home…is something we need more of, not less of. Let us make a commitment to preventive and long-term care. Let us encourage home care as an alternative to nursing homes and give folks a little help to have their parents there.

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Former President Bill Clinton

Home care is a combination of compassion and efficiency. It is less expensive than institutional care...but at the same time it is a more caring, human, intimate experience, and therefore it has a greater human element...it’s a big mistake not to try to maximize it and find ways to give people the home care option over either nursing homes, hospitals or other institutions

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Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich (R-GA)

Medicaid covers long-term care, but only for low-income families. And Medicare only pays for care that is connected to a hospital discharge....our health care system must cover these vital services...[and] we should promote home-based care, which most people prefer, instead of the institutional care that we emphasize now.

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Former U.S. Senator Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-CD)

We need incentives to...keep people in home health care settings...It’s dramatically less expensive than long term care.

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U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ)

Home care is clearly the wave of the future. It’s clearly where patients want to be cared for. I come from an ethnic family and when a member of our family is severely ill, we would never consider taking them to get institutional care. That’s true of many families for both cultural and financial reasons. If patients have a choice of where they want to be cared for, where it’s done the right way, they choose home.

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Donna Shalala, former Secretary of Health and Human Services

A couple of years ago, I spent a little bit of time with the National Association for Home Care & Hospice and its president, Val J. Halamandaris, and I was just blown away. What impressed me so much was that they talked about what they do as opposed to just the strategies of how to deal with Washington or Sacramento or Albany or whatever the case may be. Val is a fanatic about care, and it comes through in every way known to mankind. It comes through in the speakers he invites to their events; it comes through in all the stuff he shares.

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Tom Peters, author of In Search of Excellence

Val’s home care organization brings thousands of caregivers together into a dynamic organization that provides them with valuable resources and tools to be even better in their important work. He helps them build self-esteem, which leads to self-motivation.

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Mike Vance, former Dean of Disney and author of Think Out of the Box

Val is one of the greatest advocates for seniors in America. He goes beyond the call of duty every time.

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Arthur S. Flemming, former Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare

Val has brought the problems, the challenges, and the opportunities out in the open for everyone to look at. He is a visionary pointing the direction for us.

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Margaret (Peg) Cushman, Professor of Nursing and former President of the Visiting Nurses Association

Although Val has chosen to stay in the background, he deserves much of the credit for what was accomplished both at the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, where he was closely associated with me and at the House Select Committee on Aging, where he was Congressman Claude Pepper’s senior counsel and closest advisor. He put together more hearings on the subject of aging, wrote more reports, drafted more bills, and had more influence on the direction of events than anyone before him or since.

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Frank E. Moss, former U.S. Senator

Val’s most important contribution is pulling together all elements of home health care and being able to organize and energize the people involved in the industry.

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Frank E. Moss, former U.S. Senator

Anyone working on health care issues in Congress knows the name Val J. Halamandaris.

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Kathleen Gardner Cravedi, former Staff Director of the House Select Committee on Aging

NCOA is excited to be part of this great event and honored to have such influential award winners in the field of aging.

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National Council of Aging

Home care has specifically been proven to be a compassionate, cost-effective means of delivering essential health services.

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U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME)

Without your untiring support and active participation, the voices of people advocating meaningful and compassionate health care reform may not have been heard by national leaders.

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Michael Sullivan, Former Executive Director, Indiana Association for Home Care

All of us have been members of many organizations and NAHC is simply the best there is. NAHC aspires to excellence in every respect; its staff has been repeatedly honored as the best in Washington; the organization lives by the highest values and has demonstrated a passionate interest in the well-being of patients and providers.

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Elaine Stephens, Director of Home Care of Steward Home Care/Steward Health Systems and former NAHC C

Home care increasingly is one of the basic building blocks in the developing system of long-term care. On both economic and recuperative bases, home health care will continue to grow as an essential service for individuals, for families and for the community as a whole.

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Former U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME)

13AMhead

Pediatric Home Care Association of America Open Forum

Friday, November 1, - 1:00pm - 2:30pm

The Pediatric Home Care Association of America open forum provides a unique opportunity for pediatric home care providers to share ideas and information that impacts pediatric home care. The forum is open to all and promises the participants a lively and engaging discussion that addresses key issues home care providers face in caring for medically fragile children.

Objectives:

Discuss at least three ways that diabetes, depression and dementia not only overlap but increase the acuity of each individual diagnosis
Discuss the treatment options for these three overlaping conditions
Discuss at least 2 values of adding both a psychiatric as well as a specific dementia program to an organization's home care offerings

Faculty: Susan Wade-Murphy, RN, BSN, Senior Clinical Director Home Care Services, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH ; Mary Carr, RN, MPH, Associate Director for Regulatory Affairs, National Association for Home Care & Hospice

305. Home Care Technology Association of America (HCTAA) Town Hall Meeting on Health IT Interoperability, Standards & Certification

Government continues its push for interoperability in health IT. Yet barriers prevent routine exchange of critical information during transitions in care. A major reason for the low level of interoperability is the expense of connecting different electronic health record systems (EHRs). The HITECH Act partially addresses the issue by offering incentives for doctors and hospitals to adopt EHRs. It does not offer similar incentives to long-term and post-acute providers, though effective exchange of information plays a crucial role when patients transition between care settings. How can home care and hospice surmount this and other roadblocks? Join the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT) to learn how your agency can get better connected to enhance patient care.

Objectives:

Gain a greater understanding of the complexity of standards-based health information exchange (HIE) in today's health IT environment
Convey the benefits of both selecting compliance-tested EHR and HIE products, and participating in HIE testing, including enhanced patient care and reduced costs
Illustrate for NAHC members how they can find more about EHR and HIE certified products and/or compliance test their own health IT

Faculty: Moderator, Richard D. Brennan, Jr., MA, Vice President of Technology Policy, Government Affairs, National Association for Home Care & Hospice, Alisa Ray, MHSA, Executive Director and CEO, Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT), Chicago, IL; Elizabeth Palena Hall, RN, MIS, MBA, LTPAC Coordinator, Project Officer, State HIE Program, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC); Marianne Yeager, MBA, Executive Director, Healtheway, Inc., McLean, VA; Mark Solomon, Director of Innovation, HealthMEDX, Inc., Ozark, MO; Thomas Peth, President, Thornberry, Ltd, Lancaster, PA

Course Level: Intermediate; Nursing 1.5 CEs; Accounting 1.5 CPEs; Social Workers 1.5 CEs, NASW (except CA and MI),BBS (BBS except marketing credits)

Track: Health Information Technology
Audience: | HH | HOS | NUR | PHY | PD | TH

704. National Council on Medicaid Home Care Issues Open Forum

Medicaid is fast becoming the center of home care services for all age groups, the elderly, and persons with disabilities. At the same time, Medicaid home care is fast evolving with innovative home and community-based care programs starting in the States, expansion of Medicaid Managed Long Term Services and Supports (MMTSS), and the major expansion in Medicaid enrollment slated for 2014. NAHC’s National Council on Medicaid Home Care will host its third annual open forum that offers an electric dynamic focused on the hottest Medicaid issues of the day. This is one of the sessions that you must not miss if you have any interest in Medicaid home care whether as a provider or supporting vendor.

Objectives:

Identify the priority issues and trends affecting Medicaid home care
Describe the activities of the National Council on Medicaid Home Care
Recognize the growing opportunities in Medicaid home care

Faculty: Moderator: William Dombi, Esq., Executive Director, National Council on Medicaid Home Care, Washington, DC

Course Level: Intermediate; No CEs or CPEs awarded for this session

Track: Financial
Audience: | HH | HOS | NUR | PHY | PD | TH

715. Hospice Association of America Open Forum and Policy Roundup

The Medicare Hospice Program has entered an era of rapid change that is being driven by regulatory and legislative initiatives. This session will provide insight into the latest regulatory issues hospice providers must address, as well as changes that are anticipated in the not-too-distant future. The session will also serve as an opportunity for attendees to become acquainted with staff and leadership of NAHC’s Hospice Association of America.

Objectives:

Outline key issues related to current and future hospice regulatory requirements
Describe federal legislative initiatives in hospice and end-of-life care and work currently being conducted by MedPAC related to hospice
Discuss efforts by HAA on behalf of hospices in the legislative and regulatory arenas.

Faculty: Katie Wehri, Hospice Regulatory and Operations Specialist, NAHC, Washington, DC; Theresa M. Forster, Vice President for Hospice Policy & Programs, NAHC, Washington, DC

Course Level: Intermediate; 1.5 nursing CEs; 1.5 CPEs (NASBA/SKA); Social Workers 1.5 CEs, NASW (except CA and MI), BBS (BBS except marketing credits)

Track: Legal & Regulatory
Audience: | HH | HOS | NUR | PHY | PD | TH

716. Private Duty Homecare Association (PDHCA) Open Forum

Come meet and share a dialogue with the PDHCA Advisory Board Members at the open forum as we discuss the exciting news on industry trends, the Private Duty Community and the current political climate including health care reform employer mandates and the federal companion exemption.

Faculty: Lucy Andrews, RN, MS, CEO, At Your Service Home Care, Santa Rosa, CA; Brittnei Salerno, BS, Administrator and President, La Jolla Nurses Home Care, La Jolla, CA; Shelle Womble, BS, BA, Chair, Private Duty Homecare Association, Louisville, KY

Course Level: Intermediate; No CEs or CPEs awarded for this session

Track: Legal & Regulatory
Audience: | PD

803. Financial Managers Open Forum

Once again, the Home Care and Hospice Financial Managers Association (HHFMA) presents its open, no holds-barred forum meeting to pull together all the crucial information presented in the financial management workshops, legislative and regulatory developments, and innovations in health care. This session will address any and all issues of interest to the conference faculty and attendees. The insights are endless, all the advice is free and the experience is priceless. All are welcome to attend and get engaged!

Faculty: William Dombi, Esq., Vice President for Law, National Association for Home Care & Hospice, Executive Director, Home Care and Hospice Financial Managers (HHFMA); Director, Center for Health Care Law, Washington, DC

Course Level: Intermediate; No CEs or CPEs awarded for this session

Track: Financial
Audience: | HH | HOS | NUR | PHY | PD | TH