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Home Health & Hospice Week

Industry Notes:

Home Care CEOs See Higher Salaries In 2003

Published on Fri Sep 26, 2003

A better year for home health agencies meant a better year for HHA executives, shows a new salary survey.

Home care executive directors and chief executive officers' base median salaries increased 10.65 percent from 2002 to 2003, says the Hospital & Healthcare Compensation Service in Oakland, NJ. That is compared to only a 4.6 percent increase in 2002, according to the company's new 2003-2004 HOMECARE Salary and Benefits Report, published in cooperation with the National Association for Home Care & Hospice.

But management employees saw smaller increases than last year - 3.98 percent versus 4.22 percent. Registered nurses' increase was 4.28 percent, HCS says.

Executive directors of "voluntary" home care organizations had a median salary of $133,250; private FNP $87,200; for-profit $67,019; and hospital-based $89,824, HCS reports. To purchase HCS' salary report, which covers 72 jobs, go to www.hhcsinc.com.

Meanwhile, trade association Associated Home Health Industries of Florida reports Florida home care nurses saw a 1.9 percent increase from 2002 to 2003 for per-visit payment and a 10.4 percent increase for salary or hourly positions. The statewide per-visit average for the 101 agencies that responded to AHHIF's salary survey was $28.19 per visit and $22.83 per hour, AHHIF says. That trend could mean HHAs are hiring more staff on a salary basis to build agency loyalty, or that increased volume cancels out the slower rate of increase for per-visit pay rates, AHHIF speculates.

To purchase AHHIF's report, which also covers aide and billing/clerical worker pay rates, go to www.ahhif.org/03ssorderform.html.

  • House and Senate lawmakers began hammering out the details of compromise legislation provisions regarding home health services and durable medical equipment this week, but the outcome for an overall Medicare bill is still unclear.

    Reps. John Peterson (R-PA) and Jim McGovern (D-MA), co-chairs of the House's Home Health Working Group, sent a letter Sept. 17 to the legislators working on the compromise bill, reports the American Association for Homecare.

    The letter urges the conferees to reject a home health copayment, saying "we are strongly concerned about the potential negative impacts caused by any increase in direct costs for home health beneficiaries."

  • Free HIPAA help is available from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in a Sept. 25 HIPAA conference call from 2 to 3:30 p.m. ET. Providers can participate in the call, which will focus on electronic transaction and code set standards, by dialing 1-877-381-6315 with conference ID number 1596442 15 minutes before the teleconference begins.

  • The home care industry may be able to borrow a page from nursing homes' playbooks to recruit and retain workers. A broad array of professionals and health care groups has come together to form the national Commission on Nursing Workforce for Long Term Care. The group will work to strengthen state and local efforts to address the shortage of long-term care workers.

    It includes educators, nurses and representatives from the AARP, American College of Health Care Administrators, American Health Care Association, American Hospital Association, the National Center for Assisted Living and the Service Employees International Union.

  • Controversial CMS Administrator Tom Scully has let it be known he would not stick around for a potential second term under President Bush, but now it looks like his departure may be sooner than later. Scully is in talks with various lobbying firms for employment, with Atlanta-based Alston & Bird apparently in the lead, reports The Hill, a newspaper that covers Congress. Observers expect an announcement within the month.

    Scully is known for his outspoken comments - for example his remark in the Sept. 11 Open Door Forum that the feds would "kick the crap out of" suppliers who are fraudulently billing for power wheelchairs. Under Scully, CMS changed its name from the Health Care Financing Administration, instituted monthly Open Door Forums for different provider types and issues, and launched the Home Health Quality Initiative public comparison of home health patient outcomes.

  • CMS has set the Medicare Part B allowance for influenza vaccinations (CPT 90658 and CPT 9065) at $9.95 effective Sept. 1, it says in a Sept. 12 One-Time Notification.

    Annual Part B deductibles and coinsurance amounts don't apply to flu vaccines, the National Association for Home Care & Hospice says. HHAs can bill the Part B amount to their carriers if they have a supplier number, or they can bill their intermediaries based on their costs, NAHC explains. Agencies must submit a vaccine claim to the intermediary separately from prospective payment system claims.

    Influenza kills an average of 36,000 Americans per year and hospitalizes 114,000 more, the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and National Coalition for Adult Immunization said at a Sept. 23 press conference. "It is simply unacceptable that such a large number of people continue to die and suffer as a result of influenza," said Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in a prepared statement.

  • Community Hospital of Bremen in Bremen, IN is closing down its home care program, reports the South Bend Tribune. The hospital could no longer afford the program's overhead costs, officials say.

    Home Healthcare Services, a division of Starke Memorial Hospital, will pick up Com-munity's patients if they wish. Home Healthcare also offered jobs to many of Community's home care staff, the paper reports.

  • Louisiana's Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget has approved a $28 million program that offers a home care alternative to nursing home care, as ordered by a federal judge (see pdf of Eli's HCW, Vol. XII, No. 32, p. 255). But state legislators warned against possible abuse of the program, according to news reports. "It's a giveaway program at the best. If it's not monitored closely, you'll give the whole house away," said state Rep. Francis Thompson (D-Delhi).

    The program, which could serve up to 1,700 residents, would start Oct. 1 at the earliest, reports the Baton Rouge State Times/Morning Advocate.

  • New Hampshire will start a waiting list for Medicaid beneficiaries who need home care, reports the Associated Press. Budget shortfalls for the program, which furnishes about 2,000 people with home care to keep them out of nursing homes, mean there likely will be a freeze on new enrollees for four to five months, state officials said. Experts predict a resulting rise in nursing home and hospital admissions.

  • DVI Inc. is selling off its assets in a bidding process that has been extended to Oct. 3, the bankrupt health care financier has announced. In the meantime, Jamison, PA-based DVI is working on acquiring debtor-in-possession financing to continue operations.

  • The Orthopedic Store in San Antonio opened a second location in that city Sept. 16, reports the San Antonio Business Journal. The new store will sell durable medical equipment and wheelchairs, as well as provide physical therapy services, the paper says.

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