Tag: Home Care

PITTSBURGH - Highmark Health recently expanded its Home Recovery Care program to two more hospitals in its network, boosted by the ongoing public health emergency that has increased the value of home care. HRC originally launched at Allegheny Health Network in late 2019 as part of a joint venture between the payer and Contessa; it provides inpatient care in the home through telemedicine, providers and Contessa's technology for coordinating care. “HRC gives us the opportunity to give individuals...

I saw some back-and-forth on twitter between HME providers asking what the HME industry is like in Italy and the role it is playing in responding to the coronavirus pandemic there. So it was timely that I also saw an article in STAT about a paper published in NEJM Catalyst by a group of physicians at the Papa Giovanni XXIII Hospital in Bergamo about what they've learned during this pandemic, and it reads like a warning. “Western health care systems have been built around the concept of patient-centered...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - The Health Industry Distributors Association has formed a Home Care Channel Council, a new networking group in the home healthcare market. “The new council recognizes the importance of the home setting in health care,” said Mike Orscheln, 2017 HIDA chairman and CEO of Performance Health. “Our goal is to provide a forum for distributors and manufacturers to build and improve their channel strategies in the home care market.” Members of the council are Jackie...

A. Providers play a vital role in the partnership of 24-hour care. By being a knowledgeable equipment resource, you can bridge the gap by providing input and training on equipment used over the 24-hour care period to stakeholders in an individual's care plan.Most of us have a level of awareness and knowledge about benefits associated with good care and the effects on an individual's respiration, pressure care, safe patient handling, posture and the various equipment solutions associated with undertaking...

A. Tick, Tock, Tick. Consider all the pressure care, mobility, respiratory and positioning equipment available to your business. While many times we may only focus on pressure and posture care for a small portion of the day, gravity is on duty 24/7, 365, and your product offerings must consider the round-the-clock positioning and skin protection needs of the consumer.It's vital that pressure care is addressed both during lying and sitting over the 24-hour period, hence 24-hour care. Whether lying...

We hosted the Home Health Technology Summit earlier this week in New Orleans, and I had the event in the back of my mind when I was reading a New York Times article yesterday about South by Southwest, an “annual festival of tech, music, film, barbeque and tacos,” according to the newspaper. But mostly, tech. If you're not familiar with the Technology Summit—we gathered a group of C-level execs in home care (home health, hospice, visiting nurse and HME) to examine the opportunities...

Theresa just emailed me, “We are certainly going to have fresh stuff for the next Moneyline.” Moneyline is an email blast we send out each month with the most “business-y” stories from the past 30 days. “Business-y” is our formal term for stories that deal with mergers and acquisitions, financial results, etc. In case you're not keeping track like us, there have been a number of M&A stories this week. OptumRx, the pharmacy services business owned by Optum, has...

LENEXA, Kan. - Mediware Information Systems has released CareTend, a new software solution that combines the features of all its homecare solutions into one platform. The solution allows providers in HME, home infusion, home health agency and specialty pharmacy to seamlessly expand from their current service line into other markets. It also includes a new interface that offers easier navigation and greater personalization. “We have designed data conversion utilities and incentives to make converting...

I was watching, I believe, the CBS Evening News last night and caught a segment about how storm weary New Yorker/New Jersey residents were holding up without power. I caught a clip of a caregiver who was filing up/firing up--whatever it is you do the generator three times a day. She was caring for someone (sorry, I was only half-listening at that point) that uses a vent, a nebulizer and goodness knows what else. She did it she told the earnestly somber TV reporter, because otherwise he'd have to...

Dr. Steve Landers of the Cleveland Clinic said something very interesting at Invacare's annual Media Day in late August. He called home care "futuristic." That's not something you hear every day, especially with Medicare and other payers cutting reimbursement right and left. Heck, CMS seems intent on blasting HME back to the Stone Age. Media Day included a ton of interesting speakers, but Landers, who specializes in home care at the Cleveland Clinic, really impressed me. I mean, here's a guy who...