Home Health & Hospice Week
NEW JCAHO SAFETY GOALS FOCUS ON COMMUNICATION
Caregivers, patients and families targeted by new goals for 2006. The influential Medicare Advisory Payment Commission is losing its only home health representative. VNS of New York CEO Carol Rapheal's term expired this summer and no new home health repreplaced her on the commission that advises Congress on Medicare payment policy.
Home care providers accredited by JCAHO will have some new responsibilities on their plates starting next year.
The Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations has added new requirements to the National Patient Safety Goals for 2006.
In addition to existing requirements such as implementing a fall reduction program and reducing the risk of infections, home care providers must "implement a standardized approach to 'hand off' communications" between a patient's caregivers. That includes an opportunity to ask and respond to questions, JCAHO says in the new requirement that falls under the caregiver communication goal.
Home care providers also must "encourage the active involvement of patients and their families in the patient's care," the Oakbrook Terrace, IL-based accrediting body instructs. That includes defining and communicating for patients and their families to report safety concerns, and encouraging them to do so.
JCAHO will make some changes to its prohibited abbreviations requirement under the NPSGs as well. Failure to substantially eliminate prohibited abbreviations in medication orders remains, at 27 percent, one of the most frequent non-compliance findings during Joint Commission surveys, the release says. More information is at www.jcaho.org/accredited+organizations/patient+safety/npsg.htm.
Three current MedPAC members, including former HCFA Administrator Nancy-Ann DeParle, have been reappointed to three-year terms. And two new members will come on board - Jennie Chin Hansen, a member of the AARP Board of Directors, and Nancy M. Kane, a faculty member at the Harvard School of Public Health.
More information on the commissioners is at www.gao.gov/medpac/medpac05.pdf.
CIGNA HealthCare Medicare Administration changed its name to CIGNA Government Services effective May 24. The new name better describes its business as a contractor for government health care programs, the company says.
The change will be phased in over time. DME suppliers will first notice the change on the company's Web site, publications, Interactive Voice Response system and telephone greeting. However, you may still receive correspondence under the company's old name over the next six months.
But 1,200 people have signed a petition asking commissioners to reconsider and patients and family members have asked for a public forum on the issue by June 8, the newspaper says. Some commissioners are backing away publicly from the decision.
The Vancouver, BC-based DME supplier expects to open its first retail store in Bellevue, WA this month. Called 65 Plus, the store will offer a pharmacy, DME, respiratory supplies, hearing aids and other specialized products for the elderly and disabled.
The Bellevue store is the first step in the company's initiative to establish a network of 65 Plus stores throughout the United States, says AMS Homecare CEO Harj Gill.
A settlement agreement approved by the feds this month calls for MedStar VNA, formerly known as the VNA of Washington, DC, to pay about $710,000 to Medicare and $650,000 to the HHS Office of Inspector General, the newspaper says. MedStar VNA also entered a corporate integrity agreement with the OIG.
Investigators questioned reimbursement related to printing, rental costs, medical supplies and contract employees, according to the Times. MedStar VNA denies any wrongdoing and characterizes the problem as a documentation dispute, a rep told the paper.
Home Health & Hospice Week
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NEW JCAHO SAFETY GOALS FOCUS ON COMMUNICATION
Caregivers, patients and families targeted by new goals for 2006.
Home care providers accredited by JCAHO [...]
