Kenyon Connects
EDUCATION & TRAINING
Healthcare systems prioritize keeping patients out of hospitals. The burden and opportunity of managing chronic disease falls directly upon home health field staff.
A job as an aide can be the first step on a dynamic and flexible career path instead of entry level. Help make sure you know how to make it that way in your agency!
The demand for home care services is on the rise as aging populations prefer to "age in place".
Educating home health and home care aides In chronic diseases is a strategic move that significantly boosts business success.
Every Home Care/Home Health agency is in the business to make a profit. To do so one must increase retention of staff already hired.
Managing compliance in the home care, home health, and hospice world is a challenge. Let's look at what it takes. It is necessary to be methodical and intentional.
Quality of care issues present a range of challenges related to providing effective and safe care in a patient's home.
Infection Control breaches remain a problem in the home care industry. These are preventable errors for your surveys and in everyday practice.
For those of you who have been in home health for decades, the idea of competition between agencies revolved around how to get market share. You did marketing, developed relationships, maintained visibility in your communities and gave good care. With the nationwide expansion of Value Based Purchasing, competition has a whole new meaning to our industry. Let's look into the expansion. CMS began the original VBP project in 9 states on January 1st, 2016. It had 3 basic reasons listed for the project: Provide incentives for better quality care with greater efficiency; Study new potential quality and efficiency measures for appropriateness in the home health setting; and Enhance the current public reporting process. The goal was to show that quality scores could improve while there was a potential for significant savings to the Medicare program in dollars. The program showed that VBP did just that. CMS reports savings of $141 million annually with improvement of quality scores by 4.6% in those states originally involved. By this, it should be no surprise to our industry that CMS announced a nationwide expansion. CMS started the pre-implementation this year and has offered education to agencies to prepare for the full implementation on January 1, 2023. Agencies will see that payment rates will change beginning in 2025 based upon the performance numbers in 2023. You can register for the next scheduled CMS training entitled Navigating Performance Feedback Reports: Interim Performance Report (IPR) and Annual Performance Report (APR) which is scheduled for August 25th at 2pm ET. CMS also has many of the pervious recordings of trainings available for you here , so you can utilize the education and sign up for the listserv associated with Home Health Value Based Purchasing. The expanded Home Health Value Based Purchasing Model is set to base reimbursement on your performance in relation to other agencies like yours. It will look at certain quality measures each calendar year. Your OASIS, HHCAHPS surveys, and designated claims measures will calculate performance. An agency can expect between a -5% to 5% change in Medicare fee for service payments. So, what all this means for your agency is that you are not just competing for market share but for maximum reimbursement too. Agencies that do not perform will be hit for another loss to overall dollars. This could mean a transition of agencies no longer looking to provide Medicare services. It will be anticipated that certain agencies will not do well in the HHVBP model and not survive. The good news is that agencies focused on quality measures and patient satisfaction will thrive in HHVBP. Agencies need to keep the focus on Oasis accuracy, acute care hospitalization, and ER visits without hospitalization. Should you need consulting for your agency, Kenyon Homecare Consulting has senior level consultants with comprehensive knowledge and experience within the industry to help you navigate your clinical, operational, and financial needs. Call us today at 206-721-5091 or contact us online to see how we can help you succeed!
While working with agencies throughout the United States, we have the opportunity to see how many operate. This leads us to talk today about the new Oasis E tool being implemented January 1st 2023. For those who have been in the industry for decades, the implementation of a changed tool is not unusual. In our experience, when agencies educate on Oasis changes, it is normally limited to clinical staff who complete the tool. We need to look at this from the standpoint of ICD 10 coders. It is imperative for your ICD 10 coders to know the assessment tool inside and out. What Are The Changes From Oasis D to Oasis E? CMS updated the Oasis E tool on May 16th, 2022 and provided a PDF to the changes from the February 1, 2022 version. The changes are in line with expansion of Home Health Value Based Purchasing (HHVBP). So, it aligns with outcome based reimbursement. Now more than ever, the Oasis must be marked properly. We see the implementation of 3 different assessments within the tool: Brief Interview for Mental Status (BIMS),Signs and Symptoms of Delirium from the Cognitive Assessment Method (CAM), and the Patient Mood Interview (PHQ 9) which allows for expanded screening for depression. McBee and Associates offers a nice visual crosswalk tool to illustrate the changes from the Oasis D to E. What Does This Do For ICD 10 Coding? It means your Oasis needs to paint the actual clinical picture. Your ICD 10 coding isn't accurate if the documentation doesn't align. This isn't new. Now, HHVBP is going to need to see the outcomes on our patients come to fruition or your reimbursement will suffer. The check and balance of the certified coder means they need to understand the assessment tool as well or better than the nurse who does the assessment. The nurses look at the tool in a different way than the certified ICD 10/ Oasis coder. This is the analogy of the 2 sides of the brain. Putting both of these clinical pieces together is the whole picture and therefore, the whole brain completes the Oasis and coding puzzle. The coder is able to catch discrepancies or address items that don't fully align with the diagnoses based upon other documentation. You may currently have your agency doing coding in-house and if your coders are Oasis and ICD 10 certified, then great. Check their ongoing accuracy and whether it makes financial sense to keep it in-house. Spend the time and money to make sure your ICD 10 coders keep up-to-date on changes. If you don't have certified coders in place, then outsource your coding and Oasis review or you may really be penalized for errors in the tool. If you are looking to outsource, then make sure the person doing the coding is certified in ICD 10 and Oasis. Agencies Can't afford to have Oasis or ICD 10 coding errors cost them money. If you are looking to check the accuracy of your current coding system, outsource your coding, or need someone to provide educational assistance on the new Oasis E tool, Kenyon Homecare Consulting can help. Call us today at 206-721-5091 or contact us online to see how we can help!