Wednesday, March 17, 2010
The Hidden Cost of Free Software
That trap is Free Software.
It must be understood that there are vendors of home health care software that are credible, reliable, and reputable. But, healthcare is seen as a potential source of profitable business and there are many players that have arrived on the scene, looking for short-term profits, whatever the cost. These players will develop a product that offers agencies the bare essentials to run a home health care business. When a customer starts billing, then the software vendor will start to charge for their product. This is OK for start-ups and early-stage agencies. But what happens is that an agency will lock itself in to a poorly designed system, potentially for a multi-year contract. They will enter data, train their staff, and incorporate the product in to their agency workflow. And when that agency is starting to really rock-and-roll with plenty of patient referrals, they find that their software choice is incapable of supporting their business volume. At that point, it is a hard, and potentially costly decision to change to a different product and so the agency struggles on, with their software choice holding up their business growth.
What is worse is when software companies that essentially give their product away in order to secure longer term revenue, fail to be able to fund on-going research and development. The product stagnates. New features and functions quickly become basic expectations. And that software company's lack of cash to invest in their systems means that their customers suffer - slow and incomplete development, skimpy customer support, mediocre training resources, and, potentially, a company that is forced to go out of business.
Where does that leave its customers? High and dry with all their patient information stored on the remote servers of a bankrupt software vendor.
So, don't thing that free software is always good software. Vendors have a business to run, costs to cover, and investments to make in the on-going development of a product for you, the customer, as well as a trained and talented team of customer support staff and trainers, also for you, the customer.
If you are offered a deal that is too good to be true, it probably is. You are running your business - you know what it takes. Software vendors have to do the same thing. No income means a poorly run business that will probably fail. If you are paying your software vendor for their product, you are helping to guarantee your future success.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Will Your Agency Sink or Swim?
With a new injection of approximately $45,000, he bought his first recording studio, put out records of the Sex Pistols and Boy George, and then bought his first Boeing 747 to start Virgin Atlantic Airlines. Branson is now listed as one of the richest people in the world and has interests in more than 360 companies.
What does this mean to you?
With so many changes to regulations and funding, it can be a tough time for home health care agencies. It is not uncommon to be completely distracted by the need to cut costs in order to stay in business. But those agencies that WILL be successful are those that take a broader view. They understand that they need to "manage" costs more than cutting them. This is most effectively achieved when a business can do more with less, and can re-assign skilled resources to tasks that are more directly profitable.
One of the easiest ways for an agency to manage their costs more effectively is to review the tools that they use to run their business. Almost every agency has some form of software. Some applications have been developed to run entire hospitals, doctor's offices, and everything in between. These are big, expensive, and overkill for most agencies. Other applications have been developed to do just the essential tasks that an agency would need to perform - 485, OASIS, scheduling, billing. Many of these have been created and are sold by very small companies with questionable longevity.
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Igea HHC is a professional-grade product with a reputation for high performance, ease of use, and on-going compliance. Indura Systems is dedicated to home health care, at the industry level, and in partnership with every one of our agency customers.
With regular system updates that deliver critical features that touch on all parts of an agency's workflow, Igea HHC customers can be sure of always getting the home health care system they need, to run their business smoothly, efficiently, and profitably.
For a limited time, we are offering some very special payment options to make it as easy as possible for agencies to benefit from Igea HHC. There really is no better time than right now.
Contact Indura Systems today for your no obligation demonstration, and discover why Igea HHC customers are looking forward to 2010!
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Valuable Source of Free Training
So for those of you who need to recap or train employees on claim/billing-related topics, CAHABA offers a valuable source of free training available for anybody:
https://www.cahabagba.com/rhhi/education/online_courses/index.htm
Monday, December 7, 2009
Indura Systems PPS Outlier Education
Thursday, November 12, 2009
CMS ANNOUNCES POLICY AND PAYMENT UPDATES
A link to the rule can be found below:
http://www.cms.hhs.gov/HomeHealthPPS/HHPPSRN/itemdetail.asp?filterType=none&filterByDID=0&sortByDID=3&sortOrder=ascending&itemID=CMS1230142&intNumPerPage=10
Thursday, October 15, 2009
28th Annual Home Care and Hospice Conference and Exposition
Many existing Igea customers visited us to share their delight with Igea HHC, and to offer us valuable feedback on features and functions they would like to see in future releases. All this information is carefully documented and passed to our research and development team.
A number of visitors asked us about OASIS-C and ICD10 and we were happy to reassure them that our entire product line will remain compliant through all future changes to these standards.
Janet Rosta from the Baptist Memorial Health Care Corporation in Tennessee was the lucky winner of our Dell Mini 10 Netbook, a special prize awarded to all those who visited our booth and could answer 5 questions about Indura Systems and Igea HHC. Congratulations to Janet.
A new newsletter will be distributed soon and will include some exciting updates and screen shots of our trade show attendance, and our Igea EMR beta release.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Medicare reimbursement for H1N1 vaccine vs. seasonal influenza
For example, in 2009, the national unadjusted payment rate is $24.89. If the wage index for the applicable CBSA is .99, then the payment to the HHA would be $24.74
$24.89*.6=$14.934 (the portion to be wage adjusted);
$14.934*.99 (the wage index) =$14.78466 (the wage adjusted portion of the payment)
$14.78466+$9.956 (the 40% of the national unadjusted payment that is not wage adjusted) = $24.74 (after rounding)).
Monday, August 17, 2009
Home Healthcare Focus - August 2009
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This issue covers:
- Reacting to the Health Care Debate
- How Home Health Care Saves Billions of Dollars
- CMS Boosting Home Health Payments
- Increase in Drug Plan Premiums for Medicare
- Avoiding Falling in to the Trap of False Economy
- Health Insurance Reform Affecting Services
Read the newsletter here.
Friday, July 31, 2009
CMS issues proposed home health payment rule
The proposed rule would also cap outlier payments at 10% per agency and limit total outlier payments to 2.5% of total HH PPS payments. The rule will be published in the Aug. 6 Federal Register with comments accepted through Sept. 28.
Home health agencies (HHAs) receive additional payments (outlier payments) for 60-day home health episodes of care that carry unusually high costs. CMS proposes to cap outlier payments at 10 percent per agency and target total aggregate outlier payments at 2.5 percent of total HH PPS payments. Currently, the target for outlier payment targets is 5 percent of total HH PPS payments. As such, CMS reduces home health rates by 5 percent to fund outlier payments. By lowering the total outlier payment target to 2.5 percent of total HH PPS payments, CMS would increase home health rates by 2.5 percent.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Presidential Report Confirms Health Care Jobs On The Rise
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We didn’t have to read the new jobs report from Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers to know that health care’s going to add a lot of jobs over the next several years.
But we were interested in the report’s finding that the biggest job growth of any category in the economy would come not for doctors, nurses, or nursing home workers, but for a broadly defined group called “other medical services and dentists.”
The report defines that group as “a broad category including the ever-expanding home health care, outpatient care, and medical and diagnostic laboratories subsectors,” and projects more than 2 million new jobs per year for the group, on average, between 2008 and 2016.
A separate projection looks at the growth of health-related jobs versus all other occupations between 2000 and 2016. The finding: 12% growth for “other occupations”; 35% growth for “health practitioners”; and 48% growth for “health care support.” Health care support includes physical therapists, physical therapist assistants, medical social workers and home health care aides, the report says.