Home Health & Hospice Week

Not-for-profit GentleBrook Home Health Services in Coshocton, Ohio, will shut down March 31. Hospice of Coshocton purchased the home health agency from Coshocton County Memorial Hospital in 1999, and Gen­tlebrook purchased it in 2016, reports the Coshocton Tribune newspaper.

“Increased regulatory burdens without substantial increased reimbursement have been particularly difficult for small, privately owned agencies such as ours,” says Adminis­trator Tana Fischer. “Low reimbursement has already made home health a difficult space to navigate as a small nonprofit agency, but we cannot compete with the wages hospitals are able to offer nurses right now. As a Medicare certified agency, we must also comply with the vaccine mandate which will further impact our ability to staff compliantly,” Fischer says in the release.

“If we must cease operations, I’d rather do so knowing our standard of care remained of highest ranking than to watch our quality fall due to prolonged low staffing,” Fischer says.