Home Health Software Tips

Staying on top of HIPAA compliance in your Homecare agency Are clinicians in your homecare agency accidentally violating HIPAA laws without even knowing it? Preventing some of the most common breaches of client and patient privacy should be top of mind for home health care administrators, and in this blog we'll cover some of the best practices to ensure that. Three ways to avoid HIPAA breaches 1. Eliminate unauthorized access to patient information When your case managers have patients, sharing information about other patients is a HIPAA violation.  Prevent this by utilizing assigned roles in your Homecare EHR software . Empowering clinicians with a tool to select their role upon login and having the dashboard only display information about their patient will lessen the likelihood of a HIPAA violation. Keep your passwords not easily attainable, secure and lengthy to shield protected health information from prying eyes. The more used characters, the harder for hackers to g...

Five trends impacting home health payers and providers  Keeping up with trends in the homecare industry is not only important, but everywhere from water cooler chats in the office to social media healthcare groups, trending topics seem to be all the buzz. In the home healthcare industry, you have to be aware of the industry and localized trends as they can affect your business positively or negatively. Many changes are on the horizon in 2023, and in this blog, we’ll catch you up on the latest in what’s happening this year with providers and payers. Though as a nation we are closer to a “normal” now than in years past, the COVID-19 pandemic caused a major shift in how things are handled operationally in home care at the individual state and the national level. The good thing is so far 2023’s regulatory changes are providing many opportunities for new developments and expansion in your home health business. In this article, we will discuss five of the biggest trends, from staffing sh...

Starting a home health care agency can be expensive...here's what to expect... When you talk to smaller start-up agency owners, it is hard to escape the sentiment that many of these individuals have a background in nursing and patient care, and their motivation is quite personal. Homecare is very much a labor of love for a large number of people who get into the industry. On the business side, starting a home health agency can be a lucrative and rewarding opportunity, but it also requires significant financial investment and planning. So how much money does it take to start a home health agency and what factors can affect the cost? According to the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC), the cost to start a home health agency can vary widely, depending on several factors such as the location, size of the agency, services provided, and licensing requirements. On average, starting a new home health agency can cost between $150,000 to $200,000, and this includes e...

  CONFLICT RESOLUTION METHODS FOR HOME HEALTH CARE AGENCY MANAGERS Conflict is an inevitable part of any workplace, and home healthcare agencies are no exception. In a home healthcare setting, conflicts can arise between healthcare professionals, patients, and their families. If conflicts are not resolved in a timely and effective manner, they can impact the quality of care provided, lead to decreased job satisfaction and increased turnover, and harm patient outcomes. In this blog post, we will explore conflict resolution strategies that can be used in home health care agencies. 1.      Active Listening  - Good listening is a critical conflict resolution strategy in home health care. It involves giving the speaker your full attention, seeking to understand their perspective, and clarifying any misunderstandings. Active listening helps to ensure that everyone involved in the conflict feels heard and understood. 2.      Respectful Comm...

Home Health Care Challenges? What are industry insiders talking about in terms of obstacles in the home health care industry in 2023 and beyond? Coming out of a transitional year in 2022, the Home Health Care industry is looking ahead. Regulatory issues like OASIS-E and HHVBP are fresh on the horizon, and a quiet sort of cautious optimism that the worst of the pandemic and its disruptions are behind us is fueling a hopeful renaissance. With these fresh regulatory changes as well as the always present EVV system implementations hitting a fresh round of states, the area of the biggest concerns still seems to hover around the administration side of operating a homecare agency. Recently, Dr. Anna Loengard (chief medical officer at Accent Care) stated that the entire Health Care industry is being bombarded by Electronic Health Records (EHR). Her concern is that industry players need to make certain that this does not affect the goal in providing the proper care. EHR software requireme...

  Strategies for Successful Scheduling in Home Health Care Agencies Effective Scheduling is a make-or-break workflow function in your home care agency. This blog will give you the top tips and best practices to make your scheduling strategy efficient and effective. Tip #1.   Use home health software to match clients to caregivers Most home health software systems include features that providers can use to schedule clients based on a variety of attributes. It’s important to match clients by: ●        Condition specific-training ●        Frequency/Amount of visits already completed with that client ●        Distance to the client ●         Personality ●        Pet preferences ●          Transportation ●        Smoking Treat your clients according to thei...

  How Your Home Care Agency Can Work Toward A Wider Payer Source Mix Without Sacrificing Profits We all know that it’s not good to put all of our eggs into one basket, and the home care industry is no exception. Here are some tips to help your agency work toward a wider payer source mix. There are a variety of payer sources that you can incorporate into your mix, including the VA, Medicaid Waivers, Medicare Advantage, long-term care insurance, worker’s compensation, among others. You can only afford to work with so many without losing profits, so what can you do now? We’ll outline what you can do in this article. 1.    Call your local government and representatives about the need to increase Medicaid reimbursement rates for your services. Big changes are not made overnight, but there are actions you can take today to impact your tomorrow. The American Rescue Plan that passed earlier in 2021 increased funding for home and community-based services by ten percent, and ...