CMS introduced OASIS-E changes for Home Health Agencies to meet the requirements of the IMPACT Act and improve interoperability among the post-acute continuum. After delaying the implementation of OASIS-E changes due to the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency, CMS has announced that OASIS-E changes will be implemented as of January 1, 2023. Home Health Agencies should understand the extent of OASIS-E changes and plan to implement them.

An effective EVV Home Care Software solution should make EVV part of the regular workflow, support one or more lines of home care services under ONE patient, interface with multiple state EVV aggregators and integrate billing with EVV.

Even though home healthcare agencies face many challenges, there are also many upsides. Despite all the challenges facing the home healthcare industry, it will continue to grow and play an integral part in providing care at home. Technology will play a significant role in helping home agencies meet these challenges and continue to grow.

Recognize that the needs of Private Duty Nursing for pediatric care are particularly specialized. Although this service line has the potential to be profitable, it is highly difficult due to the demands of round-the-clock nursing, the capacity to connect with children, more complicated scheduling, and most importantly, the necessary nursing expertise.

For Home Care Agencies, timely and effective communication among the care team plays a critical role in providing quality patient care. Connected Care Team will lead to successful patient outcomes, improved patient and employee satisfaction, and growth while being compliant with regulatory requirements.

Home agencies should take a holistic view of their needs for a software platform rather than just focusing on their EVV needs. Using an integrated home care software platform to meet all the requirements of a home care agency will provide significant benefits that will outweigh the cost savings of ‘Free’ EVV.

Healthcare is an incredibly stressful career field. Caregivers constantly face things others could never even dream of, and providing care in a home-based setting adds to that stress. Caregivers in home-based settings work most of their time independently, develop a closer relationship with the patient and family, and often work long hours. To prevent burnout, caregivers need to maintain an excellent work-life balance. We share below some strategies to help maintain a good work-life balance:

Many families and elderly patients are now increasingly considering Hospital-at-home and SNF-at-home models. Private Duty Nursing Home Care agencies are uniquely positioned to take advantage of this trend and grow. Private Duty Nursing Agencies can partner with Hospital Systems or Accountable Care Organizations (ACO) to provide skilled care at home.

Leveraging technology and the right software platform will help Private Duty Nursing Home Care Agencies to implement strategies to effectively manage Electronic Medication and Treatment Administration and ensure patient safety.

New nurses, CNAs, and caregivers can often feel lost and overwhelmed due to the immense responsibility they now hold for sometimes critically ill patients. Lack of proper support through these new challenges can lead to employee burnout, job dissatisfaction, and decreased patient care. There are countless benefits to supporting new clinicians, including increased employee retention, increased employee referrals, and improved patient care.

Private Duty Home Care agencies can use the right technology and software platform to manage the challenges posed by unique and demanding requirements of providing skilled care at home. Using the right tools will enable home health care agencies to bring operational efficiencies to the organization and take advantage of these new opportunities.

Comprehensive, consistent, and complete clinical documentation is critical for home health care agencies for the quality of care to the patient and optimum reimbursement. Improving the quality of clinical documentation will significantly enhance the quality of care and patient satisfaction while reducing the risk of compliance issues during surveys. Compliance issues during the survey may lead to reimbursement delays or reductions.

Home Health Care Agencies should implement Clinical Documentation Improvement (CDI) programs to understand that clinical documentation starts at referral and must be managed throughout patient care (Admit through Discharge).

Home Health Care Agencies can adopt payer diversification strategies to mitigate the impact of reimbursement cuts by diversifying the payer mix and services offered. Diversifying the payer mix will reduce volatility in revenue and mitigate the impact of reimbursement cuts for the agencies.

Seamless flow of operational data for payroll processing is key to improving the timeliness and accuracy of the payroll process. This can also reduce the workload for the payroll group. The payroll process starts when the shift is scheduled, not just on payroll day.

This blog highlights some of the challenges that private duty nursing agencies face in processing payroll and discusses potential solutions that integrated software can provide.

HHVBP represents the most significant change to provide incentives (or penalties) to Medicare Certified Home Health Agencies to give higher quality and more efficient care. This blog reviews the must-have functionalities in your home care agency management software platform to help you succeed in the HHVBP Model.

CareVoyant’s partnership and integration with Waystar demonstrates our commitment to providing operational excellence for our Home Health Agencies, Private Duty Nursing Home Care Agencies, Private Duty Non-Medical Home Care Agencies, Outpatient Therapy providers, and Medical Billing Services providers.

There are millions of people who serve as caregivers. Whether they work for a private duty nursing services provider, work for a home care agency, or work independently taking care of a family or friend who might need extra assistance, it is imperative to find someone who has the traits necessary to do a job well done.

HHVBP represents the most significant change to provide incentives (or penalties) to Medicare Certified Home Health Agencies to give higher quality and more efficient care. Home Health Agencies must review processes to monitor quality outcomes and adjust as needed.

Documenting care from memory or using the notes taken at the patient's home even after a few hours may lead to incomplete documentation due to decreased memory retention. With all the responsibilities put on clinicians and caregivers – Multiple Patient Visits, Communication with physicians and other team members, etc. – retention of learned information will decline during the first 24 hours. Home Health Care Agencies should strongly encourage clinicians to document at the patient's home and provide the tools necessary to make it easy and intuitive.

The software platform will play a critical role in helping Home Health Agencies to implement OASIS-E changes. Agencies should check with their software vendors to understand their plans to accommodate OASIS-E, make sure their plan will meet the requirements, and adjust their process accordingly.

This blog reviews the functions needed to support your transition to OASIS-E.

In this blog, we will review OASIS-E changes, the impact of these changes, and how the agencies should prepare for these changes.