Educational Sessions Descriptions
Please use the educational sessions descriptions below as a guide when deciding to attend the NAHC 16th
Annual Financial Management Conference & Exposition.
THURSDAY,
July 15, 2010
Concurrent Educational Sessions (100 series)
11:30 am to 1:15 pm
| Sponsored by: |
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Session 101
“It’s All About Integrity…” Raising
the Compliance Bar: The Commitment to Organization-Wide
Integrity
Representatives of LHC Group, Inc., a national provider
of home care, hospice and other health care services, and
Deloitte & Touche, one of the nation’s top healthcare
consulting firms, will provide a panel discussion on how
LHC Group resolved to be part of the solution regarding
compliance issues from federally financed health care programs.
The result was a redesign of its compliance program which
is now viewed as a “best of class” compliance
program and is a leading example within the health care
industry. Panelists will share the steps they have taken
within the last year and a half to achieve their goals
of engaging the entire LHC Group “family” in
their commitment to integrity, ethics and compliance.
Objectives:
- Describe the state of compliance in the health care
industry at large;
- Outline steps to identify compliance risks within
your organization;
- Describe actions to redesign an overall compliance
program; and
- List steps required to ensure the organization meets
the seven key elements of an effective compliance program.
Faculty: John Indest, Special Advisor to the CEO,
Director and Former President and Chief Operating Officer,
LHC Group, Inc.; Lafayette, LA; Peter C. November, Executive
Vice President and General Counsel, LHC Group, Inc.;
Lafayette, LA ; Joshua L. Proffitt, Senior Vice President
and Chief Compliance Officer, LHC Group, Inc.; Lafayette,
LA; Vickie M. Monteith, Director, Health Sciences, Healthcare
Providers and Regulatory Risk and Compliance, Deloitte & Touche,
Charlotte, NC; and Cheryl J. Golden, Senior Manager,
Health Sciences and Regulatory Risk and Compliance, Deloitte & Touche,
Tampa, FL
Course level: Advanced; nursing 1.6 CES; accounting
2.0 CPEs (NASBA/RE)
Prerequisite: Working knowledge of compliance programs
for home health and hospice.
Session 102
Effective Strategic Planning and Forecasting
for Home Care Initiatives
Health Care Reform provides both challenges and opportunities
for home care and hospice providers. Strategic planning
and forecasting will be critical practices for management
to guide successful initiatives to address these challenges
and opportunities. This program is designed to provide
agency management with the knowledge and tools to develop
and implement effective strategic plans and forecasts to
serve as a road map for all of its initiatives.
Objectives:
- Describe the benefits of using effective strategic
planning and forecasting practices;
- Define the strategic planning and forecasting processes;
and
- Relate how to put your strategic plan to work for
your agency.
Faculty: Mark Sharp, CPA, Partner, BKD, LLP, Springfield,
MO.
Course level: Intermediate; nursing 1.6 CEs; accounting
2.0 CPEs (NASBA/MAS)
Prerequisite: Basic understanding of strategic planning.
| Sponsored by: |
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Session 103
Cost Savings in All Operations: Home Health & Hospice
The combination of legislative and regulatory changes
in Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates necessitate
a keen eye and sharp pencil to secure the cost efficiencies
to maintain the financial stability of home care and hospice
businesses. This program reviews the extensive and varied
categories of cost indicators in overhead, administrative,
workforce, service utilization, and technology. The program
then explores the manner in which a home health agency
or hospice can evaluate its cost indicators and implement
appropriate changes to achieve improved efficiencies.
Objectives:
- Identify the cost indicators that must be understood
in making operational decisions regarding overhead
costs;
- List strategies for obtaining cost savings in providing
patient care; and
- Detail methods used in evaluating cost savings by
enhancing current staff productivity levels vs. cutting
staff.
Faculty: Melinda Gaboury, CEO, Healthcare Provider
Solutions, Inc., Nashville, TN and Larry Leahy, Vice
President of Finance, Financial Management Services,
Inc., Denton, TX
Course level: Intermediate; nursing 1.6 CEs; accounting
2.0 CPEs (NASBA/SKA)
Prerequisite: Basic knowledge of Medicare and Medicaid
reimbursement regulations for home health agencies.
THURSDAY,
July 15, 2010
Concurrent Educational Sessions (200 series)
2:30 to 4:15 pm
| Sponsored by: |
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Session 201
Maximizing Collection Efforts: Home Health & Hospice
Revenue is essential for any organization including home
care and hospice. Collecting that revenue from third party
payers and directly from clients requires a well constructed
and efficient operations system that includes competent
staff who have all the appropriate tools available in a
timely fashion. This program addresses the essential elements
of a successful bill collections program including staff
skill sets, data supports, and payer billing barriers and
remedies.
Objectives:
- Identify process for appropriately delegating responsibilities
to collection staff;
- Detail differences between payer mix, including Traditional
Medicare and Medicare Advantage; and
- Discuss reports required for monthly review.
Faculty: Melinda A. Gaboury, CEO, Healthcare Provider
Solutions, Inc. Nashville, TN
Course level: Intermediate; nursing 1.6 CEs; accounting
2.0 CPEs (NASBA/FIN)
Prerequisite: Basic knowledge of collection operations
and procedures.
Session 202
Revenue Diversification – The Cure for
Addiction to Medicare Home Health
Faced with the threat of reductions in the level of Medicare
reimbursement as a result of health care reform legislation,
this session will provide direction on achieving success
with additional revenue sources available to the typical
home health agency. These areas include hospice as a supporting
revenue source and extension of your patient services,
Medicaid waiver programs, private duty services and other
avenues of providing additional services to your community.
By using these programs to diversify your revenues, your
agency will be in a much stronger position to face uncertain
times.
Objectives:
- Identify how dependent you are on Medicare home health
revenues;
- Learn about new areas of revenue that your agency
may want to consider entering; and
- Create a plan on how to study the feasibility of entering
these new programs.
Faculty: Walter W. Borginis, III,
CPA, Executive Vice President of Finance, CFO, Visiting
Nurse Association of Greater Philadelphia, Philadelphia,
PA; and David Berman, CPA, CVA, Simione Consultants,
Hamden, CT
Course level: Intermediate; nursing 1.6 CEs; accounting
2.0 CPEs (NASBA/MAS)
Prerequisite: Basic knowldege of Medicare reimbursement
for home health.
| Sponsored by: |
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Session 203
Understanding the Opportunities and Risks to
Home Health Care in Chronic Care Management
In the 2010 health reform legislation, Congress authorized
the establishment of several pilot programs and demonstration
projects designed to test new models of chronic care management.
New initiatives such as the Medical Home and Independence
at Home (IAH) physician practices to the care of the chronically
ill. How does home health promote their value to be a part
of these programs and what options do providers have to
be at the center of these care delivery teams? This session
will explore these new initiatives and give an example
of how agencies can develop programs that will showcase
the lead role home care can have.
Objectives:
- Describe the impact of chronic disease nationally
and implications for sustainable healthcare reform;
- Identify the unique value home care can provide across
the healthcare system with integrated chronic care
management;
- Discuss the components of the pilot and demonstration
projects in the health care bill as they relate to
chronic disease management; and
- Provide an example of one agency’s program to
create a center of excellence for chronic disease management
and identify next steps for agencies interested in replication
of a similar program.
Faculty: Chris Attaya, Partners Home Care, Waltham,
MA; and Beth Hennessy, RN, MSN, Executive Director, Baptist
Health Home Heath Network, Little, Rock AR.
Course level: Intermediate; nursing 1.6 CEs; accounting
2.0 CPEs (NASBA/SKA)
Prerequisite: Basic knowledge of chronic disease
management in home health care.
THURSDAY,
July 15, 2010
Concurrent Educational Sessions (300 series)
4:20 to 6:00 pm
| Sponsored by: |
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Session 301
Home Health Benchmarks – What Successful
Agencies are Doing
With Medicare rate changes on the way, home health agencies
must find ways to operate more effectively to survive and
thrive. This program will present the trends of successful
Medicare home health agencies based on the findings of
a national home health benchmark study. The key performance
indicators of high margin, high quality home health agencies
will be compared and contrasted to the performance of other
agencies.
Objectives:
- Identify key performance indicators for Medicare home
health operations;
- Provide benchmarks of high margin, high quality Medicare
home health agencies; and
- Isolate performance trends necessary to continue successful
Medicare home health operations after Health Care Reform
Faculty: Mark Sharp, BKD Ltd, Springfield, MA; Bill
Bassett; Vice President, Home Health Division, Deyta,
LLC, Louisville, KY; Amanda Twiss, President and CEO
OCS HomeCare, Seattle, WA; Barbara Rosenblum, President/CEO
Strategic HealthCare Programs, Santa Barbara, CA; and
Richard Chesney, President, Healthcare Market Resources,
Dresher, PA;
Course level: Intermediate; nursing 1.6 CEs; accounting
2.0 CPEs (NASBA/RE)
Prerequisite: Basic knowledge of quality indicators
and benchmarking for home health.
Session 302
Employer-Employee Relationships…Matching
Mutual Goals and Expectations
The challenges for Home Care and Hospice providers in maintaining profitable operations and improving their patient outcomes while facing decreasing revenue rates will largely fall upon the clinical management and staff. Productivity, case capacity and outcome achievement in a Value Based Purchasing environment indicates the necessity for a team of stable, well educated, and trained field clinicians that has significant positive chemistry in concert with management. Excellent leadership is an art and a skill. Too often there is too much direction and too little leadership. Teamwork can only be fostered by good leaders. Realistic goal expectations should be packaged with an appropriate total compensation package that rewards them for their performance in an encouraging environment. This program is designed provide the steps needed to secure positive employment relationships while improving clinical and financial outcomes.
Objectives:
- Describe the key elements
of successful leaders;
- Identify ways to foster
teamwork and positive employee-employer relations;
and
- Identify methods to
reward excellent clinical performance and improve
financial outcomes.
Faculty: Lynda Laff, BSN, COS-C, Principal, Laff
Associates, Hilton Head Isalnd, SC; and Pat Laff, Managing
Principal, Laff Associates, Hilton Head Island, SC.
Course level: Intermediate; nursing 1.6 CEs; accounting
2.0 CPEs (NASBA/PHR
Prerequisite: Basic knowledge of financial and clinical
operations in home health agencies.
| Sponsored by: |
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Session 303
Financial Management in Light of Health Care
Reform
It takes an expert working full-time to fully understand
the “ins” and the “outs” of all
of the changes in play as a result of healthcare reform. Instead
of hashing through the details of specific components of
the new laws, this session will focus on broad changes
that may impact home health and hospice, and on the actions
that you, as a financial manager, can take to ensure that
your organization is prepared for whatever challenges and
opportunities arise as a result. Topics to include:
the likely changes in utilization and payment standards
by managed care and private payers and how to effectively
negotiate fair payment rates; potential changes in the
way that other providers operate that may influence home
care operations and how your financial system should be
set up to adapt to new service lines; and how to financially
evaluate new service lines to protect or improve the financial
health of your organization before embarking on new projects.
Objectives:
- Describe forces that may incent private insurance
companies and managed care organizations to change practices
around the use and payment of home health services;
- Determine the appropriate level of payment for services
using an analysis of your data and benchmarks of industry
norms;
- Discuss why and how other providers may be changing
their approach to providing services and how that may
influence home care; and
- Forecast the financial impact of new business lines
on your organization and understand guidelines for making
a decision about pursuing new service lines.
Faculty: John Richter, Principal-In-Charge, Larson-Allen,
LLP, Charlotte, NC.
Course level: Advanced; nursing 1.6 CEs; accounting
2.0 CPEs (NASBA/SKA)
Prerequisite: Understanding of financial implications
of health care reform legislation on home health operations.
Friday,
July 16, 2010
Concurrent Educational Sessions (400 series)
8:00 to 9:40 am
| Sponsored by: |
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Session 401
The Importance of Cost Report Accuracy: Rate
Rebasing and Beyond
The HHA Medicare cost report was used to establish
the original PPS rates in 2000 and to recalibrate
the rates for the medical supplies in 2008. The Medicare
cost report is critical to the Medicare home health services
rate rebasing scheduled to take effect in 2014 under the
health care reform legislation. This program will
describe key information that is obtained from
the cost report and describe legal and business
reasons to file an accurate cost report.
Objectives
- Identify elements of the cost report that are crucial
components of accurate rate setting;
- Explain the importance of using the appropriate cost
allocation methodology in cost reporting; and
- Articulate the need for maintaining supporting documentation
on costs to respond to an audit
Faculty: Thomas E. Boyd, MBA, Boyd & Nicholas,
Inc. Rohnert Park, CA; Dave Macke, Von Lehman & Company,
Fort Mitchell, KY; and Ted Cuppett, Dixon Hughes, PLLC,
Clarksburg, WV.
Course level: Intermediate: nursing CEs 1.6; accounting
CPEs 2.0 (NASBA/FIN)
Prerequisite: Basic knowledge of the Medicare cost
report.
Session 402
Getting Your Agency Ready for Sale
With over 10,000 home care and hospice providers, buyers
can afford to be particular in their choices. Yes, it’s
true that location of your service area can be a positive
factor, but there is much more that can be done within
your operation to make your agency attractive to a potential
buyer. This program reviews the three major areas to focus
on in preparing to sell your business: financial, operational
and clinical. Each of these areas will be evaluated in
detail with guidance on how to present the most positive
understanding of your agencies value.
Objectives:
- Identify the importance of valuing the financial implications
of a transaction;
- Determine how well your agency operates within these
benchmark parameters; and
- Relate the level of due diligence needed to evaluate
agency risks presented in clinical practice and third-party
payer claims compliance
Faculty: Dexter W. Braff, The Braff Group, Pittsburgh,
PA; and Shelly Berman, CPA, CVA Principal, Simione Consultants,
Hamden, CT.
Course level: Intermediate; nursing CEs 1.6; accounting
CPEs 2.0 (NASBA/MAS)
Prerequisite: Basic knowledge of valuations process.
| Sponsored by: |
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Session 403
How to Grow your Business: Lessons Learned in
Acquisitions, Joint Ventures and Start-Ups
This program offers the insights of companies and supporting
consultants of what growth strategies work today. The program
explores options that include acquisition, joint ventures,
and the use of a “de novo” approach through
the creation of new provider sites. The pros and cons of
these respective growth strategies will be examined.
Objectives:
- Discuss actions to take to insure a successful acquisition
of a home health agency from a buyer’s perspective;
- Discuss actions to take in creating a joint venture
between a hospital and a freestanding home health agency;
and
- Discuss actions to take when opening a new agency
location beyond the reach of your current organization.
Faculty: John Nugent, Chief Acquisitions Officer,
Amedisys, Inc., Baton Rouge, LA; Peter C. November, Executive
Vice President and General Counsel, LHC Group, Baton
Rouge, LA.; and William J. Simione III, Chair, Managing
Principal, Simione Consultants, Hamden, CT.
Course level: Intermediate: nursing CEs 1.6; accounting
CPEs 2.0 (NASBA/BMO)
Prerequisite: Basic knowledge of acquisitions and
joint ventures.
Friday,
July 16, 2010
Concurrent Educational Sessions (500 series)
10:00 to 11:40 am
| Sponsored by: |
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Session 501
Painting the Right Picture with Your Agency’s
Financial Statements
Accurate financial statements are critical in obtaining
or maintaining access to capital, seeking grant opportunities,
completing a business sales transaction, reporting financial
position and performance to stakeholders, among other reasons.
Staying current on the ever-changing accounting standards
and financial statement audit standards is a challenge.
This program will help agency management understand the
importance of accurate financial reporting, address common
financial reporting errors in home care and hospice, and
bring them up to speed on new accounting and audit standards.
Objectives:
- Describe the importance of accurate financial statements;
- Identify common financial statement errors in home
care and hospice; and
- Summarize new accounting and audit standards.
Faculty: Gregg Hathorne, LarsonAllen, Charlotte,
NC
Course level: Intermediate; nursing CEs 1.6; accounting
CPEs 2.0 (NASBA/MAS)
Prerequisite: Basic knowledge of financial reporting
for home health agencies.
Session 502
Capital Formation and Financing in Home Care
and Hospice
Home care and hospice have been vibrant industries over
the last decade with dramatic expansions, development of
new companies, technological modernization, and service
diversification. To bring about these changes it requires
creativity, entrepreneurship, hard work, and a little luck.
It also takes access to capital. This program reviews the
current state of the capital markets for home care and
hospice along with successful strategies for connecting
companies to needed capital.
Objectives:
- Discuss the role that capital plays in advancing the
business of home care and hospice;
- Cite the standards used by the capital markets to
determine qualified candidates for investment/capital
infusion;
- State options for accessing capital.
Faculty: Mark Francis, Managing Director, Healthcare
Investment Banking, Houlihan, Lokey, Howard, Zukin, Dallas
TX; Panelists TBA
Course level: Advanced; nursing CEs 1.6; accounting
CPEs 2.0 (NASBA/FIN)
Prerequisite: Basic knowledge of capital markets
in home health care.
| Sponsored by: |
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Session 503
Health Care Continuum Issues Affecting Home Care
While mainstream media focused on the impact of health
care reform on access to health insurance and financing
health insurance for the uninsured, the health care reform
legislation actually included significant health care delivery
reforms in Medicare and Medicaid. Home care takes center
stage in these reforms with care system changes that will
impact both upstream referral sources and other pre and
post acute care competitors. This program reviews those
reforms and provides insights and guidance on what it takes
to be prepared for new care delivery dynamics.
Objectives:
- Identify care delivery reforms incorporated into recent
healthcare reform legislation and what their implications
may be to home care;
- Discuss various demonstration projects including post-acute
bundling and chronic care management; and
- Provide a series of action steps that attendees can
take to position themselves to benefit from these.
Faculty: John Richter, Principal-in-Charge, LarsonAllen,
Charlotte, NC
Course level: Intermediate; nursing 1.6 CEs; accounting
2.0 CPEs (NASBA/RE)
Prerequisite: Basic knowledge of health care reform
implications. |
