HomeCare News

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (May 7, 2019)—Health care IT provider Netsmart announced it has acquired Pennsylvania-based health care consulting firm, McBee. Health care IT solutions and services from Netsmart coupled with McBee’s health care professional services will provide community and acute care organizations with nearly a century of advisory and technology experience under one roof, furthering the alignment of care throughout the health care ecosystem.

ATLANTA (May 7, 2019)—Brightree announced plans for its home health and hospice customers to access more than 50,000 provider locations and health systems nationwide via the CommonWell Health Alliance, a nonprofit national trade association of health IT companies, and through CommonWell to Carequality, a national consensus-built common interoperability framework.

Birmingham, Ala. (May 7, 2019) – The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced Tuesday that it will open the window for Round 2021 of its competitive bidding program on July 16, 2019.

AGOURA HILLS, Calif. (May 6, 2019)—Casamba, a provider of electronic medical record (EMR) solutions for home health agencies, outpatient therapy, skilled nursing facilities and contract therapy providers, announced Alinea Engage is now a part of the company’s partner network. The integration is available immediately for Casamba Clinic customers and will roll out to Casamba Skilled users later in Q2 2019.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 6, 2019)—Multiple providers have received word from UnitedHealthcare (UHC) local provider representatives that denial of PAP supply claims for DME providers is a system error at UHC. Only the UHC supply policy was updated on March 31, 2019, creating an issue with the claims processing system for DME claims. The provision of including PAP supplies should exclude DME providers using Place of Service 12 (Home).

WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 2, 2019)—The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will be hosting three webcasts as part of their education program to assist bidders and sureties on CB 2021. During the webcasts, CMS will be accepting questions from participants but encourages question submissions before the webcast at cbic.admin@palmettogba.com with “Webcast Question” in the subject line. Below is the schedule for the webcasts and providers can register for the first session here.

OGDEN, Utah (May 2, 2019)—Freeus, LLC, a wholesale mobile personal emergency response system (mPERS) businesses in the United States, announced the launch of the next generation of Belle mPERS, certified on the Verizon 4G LTE network.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (May 2, 2019)—The VGM Group, Inc., a member service organization for post-acute care and home medical equipment (HME) providers, has purchased United Publishers, which puts out the industry news monthly HME News.

The purchase was completed April 1, VGM CFO Jim Nygren said in a written statement. The May 1 digital edition of HME News reflected the change, displaying the VGM logo in its masthead.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 2, 2019)—AAHomecare’s updated quarterly supplier number analysis shows a decrease in the number of suppliers. As of January 2019, there are approximately 6,143 unique traditional DMEPOS suppliers and 9,195 traditional DMEPOS locations, which is a 37% decrease in unique suppliers and 35% decrease in locations since the inception of the competitive bidding program.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 2, 2019)—New legislation to establish a separate benefit for complex rehab technology (CRT) wheelchairs under Medicare has been introduced in the House. H.R. 2408, sponsored by Reps.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (April 30, 2019)—On Friday, The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released new interpretations to the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009 regarding HIPAA violations.

The HITECH Act outlined four tiers of violations for covered entities by level of culpability:

FRESNO, Calif. (April 30, 2019)—Sunrise Medical announced the expansion of the popular JAY J3 wheelchair backrest product line, now available in over 40 Posterior Deep (PD) sizes. Finding the right fit for a client is essential for greater postural stability, positioning and comfort. Now with over 850 J3 Back configurations, finding the right fit is simpler than ever.

LYNN, Mass. (April 29, 2019)—Mavencare, a homecare technology company, announced its partnership with Greater Lynn Senior Services (GLSS), a non-profit human services agency based in Lynn, Massachusetts, providing a wide range of services to people age 60 and older and adults of all ages living with disabilities. Mavencare’s new Lynn office will help to accommodate employees from the community and will advance this important new GLSS-Mavencare partnership.