This presentation includes a detailed review of the Wound Ostomy Continence Nurses Society (WOCN) Guidance on Integumentary Items. Ensure that your clinicians are able to answer these questions with 100% accuracy: When is a re-epithelialized wound still considered a “current” wound?; What does granulation tissue really look like?; Can avascular tissue be present on a Stage 2 pressure ulcer?; How is “most problematic” defined in OASIS?; and, What impact do these three OASIS items have on case mix and outcome measurement?

The Patient-Driven Groupings Model and payment methodology reform are the largest changes that home health has seen since the inception of the Prospective Payment System in 2000. While this rule has not yet been finalized, it is in the works. Under PDGM, the 60-day episode of care is replaced with a 30-day period of payment and patients are placed into one of 216 payment groups. The structure of determining the payment grouping is as follows: (1) Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation; (2) Neuro/Stroke Rehabilitation; (3) Wounds- Post-Op Wound Aftercare and Skin/Non-Surgical Wound Care; (4) Complex Nursing Interventions; (5) Behavioral Health Care (including Substance Use Disorders); and, (6) Medication Management, Teaching and Assessment (MMTA). Low Utilization Payment Adjustments (LUPA) will exist in the PDGM, but there are multiple ways to calculate versus the current standard. All this and more will be addressed in this MUST HEAR session. Get the most recent, up to date data available.

The home health industry is at a critical juncture in its evolution from fee-for-service to a health care system based on the delivery of value. Included in this session will be a review of Medicare home health claims data and how it supports the arguments that will be made. We will start with a quick look at the current state of the industry and some of the new delivery models that are requiring reassessment of how home health is delivered (Accountable Care Organizations, bundled payments, etc.) Next, we will review and trend the relevant claims data metrics for the U.S., Florida, and each of the 11 Florida Agency for Health Care Administration regions. We will discuss and review the ongoing process employed by ACOs and hospital systems of vetting post-acute care providers for inclusion in preferred provider narrow networks. Finally, we will take a look at the "inconvenient truths" surrounding the growing impact and influence of Medicare Advantage on the home health industry.

We all know it is a battleground that is ever evolving when it comes to employee relations, especially as we have seen in the last year with increasing harassment claims, ever-changing government and legal guidance relating to Family and Medical Leave Act, Americans with Disabilities Act, as well as unemployment. In this session, you will gain guidance and insight into how you can win this chess game of risk by learning new skills and tactics for dealing with serious employee relations issues. Additionally, you will gain knowledge for learning how to curtail what potentially could be a risky employee relations issue for your company.

Join "The Sentry" (aka Terry Greenhalgh) as she stands guard to prevent fraud and abuse from entering home health agencies. Learn how to meet this challenge by arming compliance officers with the seven elements of an effective compliance program. Gain additional knowledge from Office of the Inspector General (OIG) guidance, the False Claims Act, federal sentencing guidelines, and more to help keep your agency safe. Attend this session, and fraud and abuse won’t breach your gates!

With auditors' focus on the home health industry and the rise of Targeted Probe and Educate, certified agencies need to be prepared for a review at any time. As agencies continue to focus on the new Quality Assurance and Performance Improvement (QAPI) and process improvement, this is an ideal time to be proactive on reviewing and educating staff on effective clinical documentation. This is important to compliance—ensure that records are clean now if any future “look back” was to occur.

Join highly-skilled combatant and strategist Mystique (aka Lani M. Dornfeld, Esq.), who will provide insight into negotiating strategies and key provisions of employment, independent contractor, and restrictive covenant agreements. Lani will discuss key terms to include in such agreements, and how to make them as agency-friendly and protective as possible. Lani will explain Florida’s restrictive covenant statute, and how to ensure your agency’s agreements are prepared to comply with the statute and be enforceable. She also will discuss the recent Florida Supreme Court case concerning restrictive covenants, and provide important tips for agencies to ensure their restrictive covenant agreements provide the maximum agency protections possible, including protection against theft of referral sources by home health marketers and others. Gain super hero knowledge on timely topics for your agency!

OASIS will have major changes again in 2019...items deleted, items added due to modifications in OASIS, and the IMPACT Act. In this interactive session, learn what items will be deleted, what new items your clinicians will have to complete, and how this may affect your future.

The long-term care industry has changed significantly from its arrival in the 1970s. Demand for services is expected to grow with the aging of the Baby Boomer generation, yet carriers have come under increasing financial stress. Meanwhile products have evolved to meet new preferences and new economic realities. How can you navigate the long-term care insurance world successfully? Attend this session to find out.

As reimbursement decreases and administrative needs increase, agencies focus on doing more with less. There are many options on how to realign a revenue cycle department – software optimization, add-on software, process flow redesign, and/or outsourcing. The key to each is understanding current capabilities, budget, measurements, and accountability. This session identifies strategies for optimizing your revenue cycle department.

This presentation will help you gain an understanding of quality cycle management as it applies to home health. You will gain the ability to identify the impact of continuous quality improvement on patient outcomes, as well as a means by which to set measurable quality metrics at every step in a patient's journey from intake to discharge.

The number of workers with eldercare responsibilities is rising dramatically. More than 40% of U.S. workers have provided care for an aging relative or friend in the past five years. About half of the entire workforce should expect to be providing eldercare in the coming five years! Whether you’re a caregiver by profession or one of the many millions of American workers who now find themselves in that role, you will benefit from resources, principles, and best practices for balancing work, family, and caregiving. This talk offers inspiration and healing, even a bit of humor, for empowering your working caregivers.

This session will discuss the importance of efficiently and adequately onboarding new employees. This process is often overlooked and can set the tone for dissatisfaction and loss of enthusiasm in new employees. In the hyper-competitive health care industry, hiring the right candidates has become harder and harder. One of the easiest ways to curb this task is to ensure your current employees stay satisfied with your organization and don’t leave in the first place. One of the best ways to accomplish this starts on the first day of employment and continues year after year. Attend this session for guidance and best practices for onboarding new super heroes as part of your team.

Home care providers of all types are embattled and beleaguered. But there is hope! Some doors that seemed pretty tightly closed are now cracking open. With regard to appeals of claims’ denials from ZPIC audits and otherwise, the courts may now be ready to prevent recoupment until after Administrative Law Judge hearings are conducted. And at least one appellate judge is so frustrated over the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services' inability to break the logjam of pending appeals before the ALJ that he asked the American Hospital Association, the plaintiff in a lawsuit that aims to require HHS to take action, to weigh in with solutions. And that’s not all! There are recent developments regarding patients’ right to freedom of choice. Whether your agency is hospital-based or free-standing, you need to know how to navigate waters that may now be more open to action. And even more! We are all familiar with what amounts to “bad survey culture” or “bad juju.” A judge recently upheld an agency’s action against a state survey agency based on misconduct! Come to this session to learn how to wield these new and expanded powers to succeed on the legal front. Hear us roar!

Wrap up Tuesday with your chance to ask AHCA! The Agency for Health Care Administration’s Kimberly Smoak and Donah Heiberg will be on hand to present the latest from Tallahassee, including what Senate Bill 622 means for your agency, expectations of the emergency preparedness regulations, the top 10 survey deficiencies for both Private Duty and Certified agencies, and more! Attendees will have the opportunity to pose questions to the experts during this informative session.