AccomplishmentsHCTAA - Making a Difference in Home Care Membership and Administration HCTAA Planning Continues for 15th Annual Financial Management Conference HCTAA continues its planning for a HCTAA pre-conference session at Annual Financial Management Conference, where several HIT related topics will be discussed/presented. HCTAA has divided the presentation into three components, with industry experts and administrators at home health agencies prominently featured as speakers. Ellen Bolch, Karen Thomas and Randy Moore will moderate panels regarding the topic of getting the most out of investments in technology. The panels will explore what is happening today, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. Please join us in Boston for this exciting pre-conference opportunity. Media HCTAA continues to publish and circulate a weekly “Home Technology Update” covering the world of technology and home care. In addition, HCTAA Executive Director Bob Waters writes a monthly column for NAHC’s CARING magazine, covering a wide range of telehomecare issues. Membership Benefits The membership benefits of HCTAA include several items designed to increase HCTAA visibility, such as special designations for HCTAA members at NAHC events. Furthermore, HCTAA has begun an effort to overhaul the HCTAA website, making it more user-friendly and useful as a resource. HCTAA corporate members also receive a host of membership benefits. To view a complete list of the Enhanced Vendor Membership Benefits, click here. HCTAA is actively involved in raising home care technology issues before Congress and health care audiences nationwide. HCTAA’s activities have taken this effort to many fronts in Congress: Introduction of Legislation in the House and Senate to Expand Telehomecare Technology Projects: Fostering Independence Through Technology Act (H.R.3030) introduced in House of Representatives Representatives Tim Walz (D-MN) and Ginny Brown-Waite (R-FL) introduced the Fostering Independence Through Technology (FITT) Act of 2009 in the House of Representatives. Representative Brown-Waite is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, one of the key committees in the House drafting health care reform legislation. To make a request to have your Representative co-sponsor H.R.3030, click here. The bill is identical to S.457, legislation introduced earlier this year in the Senate by Senators John Thune (R-SD) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN). A cosponsor of S.457, Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND), is a member of the Senate Finance Committee, one of the key Senate Committees drafting the Senate version of health care reform. HCTAA staff prepared a report on the NAHC Legislative Action Network (LAN) to provide information to HCTAA and NAHC members and assist them in contacting their Senators to support S.457. To make a request to have your Senators co-sponsor S.457, click here. The bill establishes pilot projects to provide incentives for home health agencies to utilize home monitoring and communications technologies. The concepts behind this legislation were developed by the HCTAA Advisory Board. HCTAA Cosponsored 7th Annual Telehealth Leadership Conference to Press for Telehealth/Remote Monitoring Legislation The FITT bill was one of the agenda items at the 7th Annual Telehealth Leadership Conference. HCTAA joined with the Telehealth Leadership Initiative and the American Telemedicine Association to cosponsor this conference where telehealth stakeholders from around the country participated by webinar on an advocacy agenda for telehealth and remote monitoring. Program participants heard from Congressman Mike Thompson (D-CA), sponsor of H.R.2068, the Medicare Telehealth Enhancement Act of 2009. H.R.2068 includes comprehensive changes to telehealth and remote monitoring policies, including provisions to require that home health services be considered as a home health visit for eligibility and payment purposes and to allow for costs of telehealth services to be reported as a reimbursable cost center. After hearing from Congressman Thompson and key Congressional staff, including the health care legislative staff for Senator Thune, the program participants were directed to call their Senators and Members of Congress to cosponsor both S. 457 and H.R. 2068. To write your Representative about H.R. 2068, click here. HCTAA also supports the Medicare Rural Home Health Preservation Act, which would restore the rural add-on for five years. To write your Senators about S.1123, the Medicare Rural Home Health Preservation Act, click here. Senate and House FY2009 Appropriations HCTAA Works with OAT to Guarantee Telehealth and Telehomecare Grants The Congress passed, and the President signed into law, the Omnibus spending bill for Fiscal Year 2009. This legislation contained an increase $850,000 in appropriations for the Advancement of Telehealth (OAT) in the Department of Health and Human Services. The bill also provided directions to OAT in two key areas of telehealth and telehomecare. First, Congress directed OAT to facilitate cooperation among health licensing boards “to develop and implement policies that will reduce statutory and regulatory barriers to telehealth and telehomecare.” Second, Congress indicated that they expect OAT to support grants for “resource centers, networks, pilots, and demonstrations.” HCTAA intends to work with OAT to solidify the importance of including telehomecare projects when OAT implements these grant programs. HCTAA Creates Virtual Health Care Technology Resource Center (HCTRC) HCTAA has begun to create a “virtual HCTRC” demonstration project which will serve as evidence that HCTAA is the organization best suited to serve as the home care technology community’s central information resource. HCTAA Opposes Budget Cuts to Medicare and Home Health To write your legislators to oppose home health care cuts, click here. To write your legislators to oppose Medicare hospice cuts, click here. Regulatory Agenda HCTAA Joined NAHC in Commenting to the ONC on the Definition of “Meaningful Use” HCTAA and NAHC submitted comments on the meaningful use of EHRs and advocated for the inclusion of home health care and hospice providers in the scope of work by the Office of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology (ONCHIT). HCTAA Joined in Commenting on OASIS-C Collection Requirements HCTAA and NAHC joined with other organizations interested in long term care to comment on an information collection request by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). This information collection request pertained to the implementation of a required Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services form to be used by home health agencies in 2010. HCTAA and NAHC’s comments were provided to alert HHS that the current implementation plan called for a proprietary format “that impedes interoperability, wastes resources, and is based on a timeline that does not allow for the development/installation of software.” The positions advocated by HCTAA and NAHC made recommendations for specific procedural changes in the collection request and a delay in the program’s implementation. HCTAA Participates in CCHIT Long-Term Care Advisory Work Group HCTAA staff has been undergoing efforts to position home health care and hospice for the certification of Electronic Health Records (EHR) and were recently informed of an opportunity created by the expansion of the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information (CCHIT) Roadmap to include an expanded definition of the long-term care (LTC) spectrum that would include home health care and hospice. NAHC’s partnership with the Long-Term Care Health Information Technology (LTC HIT) Collaborative has enabled us to nominate representatives from the home care and hospice community to serve on a new CCHIT advisory task force for LTC. NAHC’s president, Val J. Halamandaris, recommended that we extend the opportunity to Mary Haynor of Horizon Home Care & Hospice, Inc., Marcia Reissig of Sutter VNA & Hospice and Christopher Attaya of Partners Home Care. The Committee’s main objective is to identify broader patient care and business models from the LTC HIT certification spectrum. HCTAA is participating in this work group by providing input into the standardization recommendations. HCTAA Participates in CAST Committee for Interoperability Showcase at the 2009 Long-Term Care Health Information Technology Summit– Baltimore, MD HCTAA Chair Jake Levy participated on the planning committee with a multi-week conference call to establish the first ever vendor showcase for innovative IT solutions for Long Term Care. The showcase will highlight demonstration of health IT interoperability for shared care, transfer of care, personal health, and e-prescribing use cases. Providers, Vendors, Developers, Consultants and others will show production and in-development interoperability solutions, services and strategies on the exhibit floor. HCTAA Advisory Board Member Recommended for HIT Policy Committee Longtime HCTAA Advisory Board Member Randall S. Moore, MD, MBA, Chair, CEO, and President of American TeleCare, Inc., was recommended by NAHC and HCTAA to fill one of the positions for the HIT Policy Committee outlined in the recently-passed Stimulus Bill. Also, two new HCTAA provider members, Karen Thomas of Oxford Healthcare and Ellen Bolch of THA Group, were nominated to represent health care providers. The legislation provided that the Comptroller General of the United States would fill 13 positions on the Policy Committee, one of which was identified coming from the ranks of “information technology vendors” and one of which was identified to be filled by a “health care provider” that was not a physician. |
