Jeannee Parker Martin, Ron Some and Bill Musick had the exciting opportunity to be a part of the CAHSAH Annual Conference and Home Care Expo! At CAHSAH Jeannee led an interesting discussion session on the hot topics in hospice. Bill also had the opportunity to be featured at the event and spoke on governance. The team also brought back exciting new information from keynote speakers and discussions. We would like to thank everyone who attended the discussions and dropped by our booth to connect with the TCG team personally!

TCG’s Sheryl Jones and Peggy Patton had a great time at FHPCA’s Forum 2012 Together Hospice Works! Multiple Skills, Many Minds, One Mission! Peggy had the opportunity to speak at two breakout sessions during the event. We would like to thank those of you who listened in on the sessions! Peggy and Sheryl both learned valuable information while in attendance. TCG enjoyed this great opportunity to network and share knowledge with other professionals in the industry! It was a pleasure personally connecting with all of those who came to the TCG led breakout sessions and the TCG booth!

Thank you’s all around to those who attended these conferences and connected with the TCG team! We look forward to working with you! To see where you can connect with the team next, check out our calendar page.

H300 – What’s Hot In Hospice
Wednesday, May 9, 2012, 9:45 AM – 11:15 AM
Hospice is becoming central to discussions related to care transitions – from hospitals, nursing homes, home health and palliative care providers. The session will discuss the latest in care delivery models, hospices role in new care transition delivery models, and recent regulatory and reimbursement changes. If you want to know what is hot in hospice, this interactive session is for you!
Presented by: Jeannee Parker Martin, The Corridor Group, Inc. 

L400 – Good Governance?
Wednesday, May 9, 2012, 1:15 PM – 2:45 PM
Is your board prepared for the future or meddling in the past? This presentation will focus on implementing good governance practices including role of the board, board and CEO succesion planning, term limits, and much much more. If you want to prepare for 2020 with vision and strategy, you will need a great board to lead and support Management Team decisions. This session will help you get there!
Presented by: Bill Musick, The Corridor Group, Inc. 

For More information on the CAHSAH Annual conference and Home Care Expo check out the conference page.

TCG is excited to be a part of this great event! To connect personally with the team sit in on one of our TCG led sessions or come by booth #211 in the expo hall!

Here are a few ideas from http://nursingworld.org/ for ways to celebrate Nurses Week:

• Hold a special celebration or reception to recognize a nurse or several nurses in your community. These nurses could be honored for heroic acts, years of service to the community, exemplary courage, or their commitment to the nursing profession over the years.
• Sponsor a community-wide event, such as a coloring contest or poem-writing contest for school children. The children could acknowledge their favorite nurse, a famous nurse, or family member who is a nurse – past or present – in a colorful drawing. The drawings could be displayed in local schools, hospitals, nursing homes, etc.
• Purchase promotional items for National Nurses Week (i.e., RN Pins, key rings, t-shirts, mugs, buttons, etc.).
• Promote a positive, realistic image of registered nurses by sponsoring health fairs, conducting preventive screenings in underserved areas, organizing a walk-a-thon, etc.
• Work cooperatively with hospitals, schools, and libraries to set up a special display for National Nurses Week using promotional materials, such as, pins, t-shirts, posters, etc.

To learn more about National Nurses Week and how you can celebrate the Nurses in your life, check out the American Nurses Association Website.

TCG Corporate Compliance Tip #3: Implement the Plan! Tip #3 wraps up our introduction to Corporate Compliance Program Essentials guides with the OIG’s Fundamental Elements six and seven. These elements cover how to monitor and respond to any offenses that could possibly arise. Remember, it is important to monitor compliance from the inside in order to avoid violations on the outside!

Element Six of TCG’s guides focuses on conducting internal monitoring and auditing. In order to conduct effective monitoring, auditing, and reporting of compliance risks and incidents certain methods are required. Monitoring is essential because it allows an organization to understand and assess risk. When monitoring your organization it is important to follow a process such as the Organizational Risk Assessment (ORA) process.
There are four steps to ORA:
1. Make the Initial Assessment—evaluate risk from the top down.
2. Create a Level of Action—the higher the risk score, the more action taken.
3. Begin ORA—use a variety of techniques like surveys and complaint logs.
4. Establish a Range of Days—allocate time to arrange the correct number of days for completion.

Auditing is also an important aspect to and should be used for the processes which are the most complex. These processes involve a larger scope, more resources and a longer time frame. The guides identify problem areas and a list of planning objectives for a successful audit. Some common problem areas to monitor are:
• Marketing
• Patient services
• Claim development and submission
• Financial and vendor services

Lastly, make sure to respond promptly to detected offenses and undertake corrective action. It is important to perform, document and report on investigations. This will help you effectively accomplish and respond to audits and other situations. To keep moving forward be sure to take action against any findings by adding or altering existing policies.

For documentation of an investigation the OIG specifies the following:
1. Documentation of the alleged violation
2. A description of the investigative process
3. Copies of interview notes and key documents
4. A log of the witnesses interviewed and the documents reviewed
5. The results of the investigation

At TCG we encourage you to further implement and improve your Corporate Compliance Program for prolonged success. For the most useful information, graphs and samples, our Corporate Compliance Program Essentials guides are available at store.corridorgroup.com.

Jeannee is honored to be presenting at the pre-conference dinner session. She will be sitting in on the “Presidents Predict Panel,” where they will discuss strategies for your VNA’s future success. Overall, the TCG team is very excited about VNAA! It is sure to be a great event, filled with industry knowledge and opportunities for networking. The TCG team can be found Thursday, May 3rd at booth #410 in the exhibit hall. We will have great discount offers and give aways. TCG would love to personally connect with you, so come check us out!

Esther hails from Palmdale, California and brings more than 20 years of home care experience to the team. She has successfully managed multi-site operations for regional private duty providers on the West Coast, as well as directed nurse recruitment for large, for-profit home health companies across the country. In the last decade, Esther has served as a National Recruiter for Tender Loving Care and as a Regional Recruiter for Nursefinders. More recently, she has expanded her recruitment expertise by working with a high volume healthcare staffing company to place director-level talent in home health and hospice.

Esther looks forward to working in retained search as well as assisting us in the launch of our TCG TalentLink offering. With Esther’s experience and drive, she is sure to be a great asset to the TCG Executive Search team!

Time: 10 am PT/12 pm CT/1 pm ET

Presented by: Niamh Van Meines, MS, ANP, OCN, LMT

As hospices evaluate their patient populations they may find that they provide care for a particular diagnosis that could benefit from a specialty program. Dementias, Cardiac/Heart Failure, Pediatrics and Pain are just a few areas that could be addressed by such a program. Bridge programs can assist your organization in meeting community needs as well. This webinar will help you in determining if a specialty program is right for your hospice.

After attending this webinar, the participant will be able to:

• Describe goals of specialty programs within their organization.
• Identify programmatic needs that are unique to their organization and populations served.
• Determine the framework for creating specialty programs.

Three Purchase Options Available:

Webinar Registration

Webinar CD

Webinar Combination Package

Learn More

When implementing a Corporate Compliance Program it is important to provide effective training and education. When it comes to education, all personnel need information about the compliance aspects of their specific duties and responsibilities. This includes everyone in the organization, from executives to staff to all other stakeholders. Training should be required at orientation and on an annual basis thereafter. Compliance trained instructors are integral in order to consistently train everyone involved. When developing training sessions, remember to incorporate the following but not be limited to:

• General prohibitions on paying or receiving remuneration to induce referrals
• The physician self-referral law
• Improper alterations to clinical and billing records
• Providing home health/hospice services with proper authorization
• Proper documentation of services rendered, including the correct application of official ICD and CPT coding rules and guidelines
• Patient rights and patient education
• Compliance with Medicare conditions of participation
• Duty to report suspicions of non-compliance
• Marketing guidelines

Another important element of a Corporate Compliance Program is to develop effective lines of communication. Communication allows the organization to gather the force to propel itself to the center of the compliance target. In order to continue success throughout the organization it is important to develop effective lines of communication. Be sure to allow time for questions and discussions while keeping a respectful and meaningful exchange. This can be accomplished by using several different means of communication, for example:
• Emails
• Toll-free hotline
• Newsletters
• Website
• Faxes
• Survey
• Bulletin Boards

Lastly, always make sure to enforce standards through well-publicized disciplinary guidelines. Remember when implementing your program, problems arise and it is important to adhere to established policies and be prepared to react to any issues that may occur. Disciplinary guidelines must be in place to counteract any setbacks because being inconsistent is harmful for an organization. If an incident occurs here is a good standard to follow for typical steps taken:
1. Letter of Reprimand
2. Probation
3. Monetary Penalties
4. Pre-dismissal

For detailed information, graphs and samples, our Corporate Compliance Program Essentials guide is available at  store.corridorgroup.com.

Last month TCG was recognized for our elevator sponsorship for the Center for Care at the End of Life. The dedication event was attended by Kathy Dodd, TCG Founder and CEO, and Jeannee Parker Martin, President and Co-Owner.

Take a look pictures and more from the event here. We are honored to sponsor the elevator for the Center for Care at the End of Life!