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Home Health & Hospice Week

Industry News:

New Head Of CMS On Deck

Published on Thu Feb 26, 2004

A new leader soon will take the reins and lead policy-making decisions at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

President George Bush revealed that he will place Mark McClellan at Medicare's helm to fill the vacancy left after Tom Scully's departure in December. McClellan has served as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration since 2002. The native Texan has also been Bush's top advisor on health policy as a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

Previously at Stanford University, he wore several hats including associate professor, director of the program on health outcomes research, and attending physician for internal medicine at Stanford Health Services.

Dr. McClellan holds a BA from the University of Texas, a master's degree from Harvard University, a medical degree from Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, and a Ph.D. from MIT.

  • Hospices will see the benefit of the Medicare reform law passed in December sooner than they may have thought. Effective Dec. 8, 2003, hospices can contract for core services "in extraordinary, exigent, or other non-routine circumstances," CMS says in a Feb. 12 letter to surveyors (S&C-04-21). The hospice will maintain responsibility for any contracted services, however, CMS stresses.

    Examples of qualifying circumstances include staffing shortages due to illness and unanticipated high patient loads, says the letter.

    It's also OK for hospices to contract for highly specialized, infrequently used RN services, the letter adds. But continuous care doesn't qualify as such, CMS warns.

    Even though the hospice conditions of participation (COPs) haven't been modified yet, surveyors shouldn't cite hospices for these contracting activities allowed by the new law, according to the letter at www.cms.hhs.gov/medicaid/survey-cert/sc0421.pdf.

  • Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins has reached an settlement for undisclosed terms with the parents of a two-year-old home care patient who died as a result of incorrect total parenteral nutrition solution (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XIII, No. 3).

    And Johns Hopkins is naming a playroom after Brianna Cohen, who died Dec. 4 after potassium levels in the TPN she received from the infusion pharmacy at Johns Hopkins Home Care were four to five times higher than called for, reports the Associated Press.

    An investigation by Maryland's Office of Health Care Quality found numerous procedural breakdowns at Hopkins Home Care, including inadequate supervision, poor record keeping and failure to adhere to state regulations, AP says. Investigators found 14 medication errors and six delivery "incidents" in 2003 at Hopkins Home Care and concluded "that the follow up actions and plans were inappropriate/ineffective," AP reports.

    Hopkins says it has put into place "substantive measures" to ensure patient safety.

  • A few long-time fraud hawks want to know why there's no funding increase for the HHS Office of Inspector General in the Department of Health and Human Services' 2005 budget, even though new Medicare legislation steps up the number of providers and contractors -- and the level of potential fraud.

    In a Feb. 6 letter to HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson, Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) proclaims "strong support" for such inquiries from Sens. Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Max Baucus (D-MT). Stark nixed the present budget, which also decreased the staff for the agency.

    The money for an OIG budget increase should come from the $1 billion set aside for implementation of the new Medicare law, the letter urges.

  • For-profit hospice chain Odyssey HealthCare Inc.'s earnings continue to climb. For the year ended Dec. 31, Dallas-based Odyssey reported net income of $31.2 million on $274.3 million in revenues, compared to a $21.1 million profit on revenues of $194.5 million in 2002.

    Average daily census grew from 4,407 to 6,019 in the same time period.

    Odyssey opened nine start-up locations and acquired eight hospices during the year. Seven start-ups are on track for 2004 and more acquisitions are planned, the company says in its earnings release.

  • Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration soon will decide whether Charlotte County will be opened to more hospice programs.

    Both Ft. Meyers-based Hope Of Southwest Florida Inc. and Heartland Hospice Services Inc. (an arm of Toledo, OH-based long-term care giant HCR Manor Care) have once again applied for certificates of need in the county, reports the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

    Hope also wants a CON in DeSoto County. Heartland, which has 74 offices nationwide but no locations in the state, has applied for CONs in Volusia, Orange, Collier and Indian River counties, the paper says.

    Both Hope and Heartland were turned down for CONs in Charlotte County last year.

    Hospice of Southwest Florida currently is the only hospice program serving Charlotte County, the Herald-Tribune says.

  • Health Care America Corp. is acquiring Halifax (FL) Medical Center's home health agency for $2.25 million, reports the Orlando Business Journal. Halifax is the latest of many hospital systems to shed its home care business.

    Health Care America will offer the hospital agency's employees "similar jobs" under its ownership, the newspaper says.

  • Apria Healthcare Group Inc. reported flat profits for the year, although revenues grew 10 percent. The Lake Forest, CA-based respiratory and durable medical equipment giant recorded net income of $116.0 million on revenues of $1.4 billion for the year ended Dec. 31, compared to a $115.6 million profit on revenues of $1.3 billion for 2002. And the 2003 figures were even helped out by a favorable tax settlement, Apria noted.

    Apria purchased 27 new businesses in 2003, it says.

  • Disease management company Matria Healthcare Inc. reported net income of $7.3 million on revenues of $326.8 million for the year ended Dec. 31, 2003, compared with a loss of $16.3 million on $277.6 million for all of 2002.

    Marietta, GA-based Matria plans to crack the "neonatal intensive care case management market and the market for certain specialty pharmaceuticals for infants and children," the company says in its latest earnings release. 

     

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