Posted on Thursday, July 19, 2018 1:50 PM
NAHC President Bill Dombi gave his annual Washington Update this week at the Financial Management Conference.
“All aspects of the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) have been or are being restructured to prepare the association for its future as the unifying force and leading policy advocate in home health and hospice”, said Dombi. He told the attendees that it is of the utmost importance that they, their colleagues, their patients and their patients families get involved in a grassroots effort to give the home health industry a voice in Washington DC that is as powerful as the National Rifle Association.
On policy issues, President Dombi predicted lots of political rhetoric about health care in the election season of 2018, but little actual legislation, though continued regulatory experimentation by the Trump administration is certainly possible. An exception, though, is in the issue of hospice and opioid abuse, where legislation (some of it supported by NAHC) has been active and, in some cases, successful.
Other issues touched on by Dombi include:
- Difficulty in attracting the large and qualified health care workforce the country needs indicates higher reimbursement rates will be needed to create the higher salaries that will attract employees;
- Workforce issues involve difficult and often contentious issues like immigration and unionization;
- The number of home health agencies nationally remains stagnant due to ongoing moratoriums on new agencies in states like Florida and Texas;
- Hospice is seeing impressive growth in Medicare providers, expenditure, and utilization;
- Wage and hour issues continue to be important for the industry, with over 1000 current lawsuits
Regarding the new Patient-Driven Groupings Model, he believes that having a balance of different kinds of patients would be good for agencies, but those that are dependent on therapy patients might have a hard time with the new system.
Dombi concluded his Washington Update with a solemn vow that NAHC 2.0 is a servant leadership organization, where the staff exists to serve the needs of the members and will be listening more than ever to their concerns.
Source: NAHC
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