home health

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.

HARTFORD, Conn. and PHILADELPHIA (April 23, 2019)—CareCentrix, a pioneer in home-based post-acute care (PAC) solutions, and Turn-Key Health, a provider of community-based palliative care solutions to health plans and provider organizations, announced a partnership which expands the CareCentrix PAC program by integrating Turn-Key’s Palliative Illness Management (PIM) solution for patients burdened by a serious or advanced illness.

AGOURA HILLS, Calif. (April 23, 2019)—Casamba, a provider of electronic medical record (EMR) solutions for home health agencies, outpatient therapy, skilled nursing facilities (SNF) and contract therapy providers, announced Forcura has signed on to join the company’s partner network.

CHICAGO (April 17, 2019)—A Chicago-based home health company filed a class action complaint in Federal Court on Friday, April 5, against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and a federal Medicare contractor named AdvanceMed.

SHOREVIEW, Minn. (April 11, 2019)—Maxwell Healthcare Associates (MHA), a home health and hospice consulting firm, announced tremendous company growth led by tripling its year-over-year top-line performance. In the last year MHA doubled its customer base, more than tripled its consultant count, added new partners and broadened its service lines.

Via NAHC, WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 3, 2019)—The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) posted long-awaited information about the next steps for its Review Choice Demonstration, which will begin in Illinois on June 1, 2019.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (April 3, 2019)—Encompass Health Corp., the fourth-largest provider of Medicare-certified skilled home health services, will buy the assets of the privately owned Alacare Home Health & Hospice.

The companies announced the deal on April 1; the terms were not disclosed. Birmingham, Alabama-based Alacare operates 23 home health locations and 23 hospice locations in Alabama and generated about $117 million in revenues last year.

Via NAHC (March 28, 2019)—A New York Court of Appeals ruling will allow homecare providers in that state to continue to pay “sleep in” aides for 13 hours of a 24-hour shift, as long as the employees are given three hours for meal breaks and eight hours of sleep, at least five of which must be uninterrupted.

NETANYA, Israel (March 25, 2019)—Eitan Group, a global provider of advanced infusion therapy solutions across the care continuum, announced that Roger Massengale has been appointed CEO of Eitan Group North America.

Massengale’s appointment signals Eitan Group’s move into directly marketing its infusion product suite in North America.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 18, 2019)—The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), released its annual March report to Congress on March 15, 2019. MedPAC is required to produce this report; however, Congress is not required to act upon all the recommendations contained in the report and historically has not done so. Chapters 9 and 12 of the Report, Home Health Recommendations and Hospice Recommendations respectively, will be of most interest to NAHC members.

LENEXA, Kan. (March 14, 2019)—WellSky, a health and community care technology company backed by TPG Capital, announced a partnership with Chapters Health System to deploy and develop its web-based electronic health record (EHR) technology solutions. Chapters Health and its affiliates will implement Consolo hospice and palliative care software as well as WellSky home health software. Consolo joined the WellSky team in late 2018.