Posted by HEALTHCAREfirst Blogger on Thu, Feb 02, 2012 @ 03:35 PM
STAY CONNECTED WITH HEALTHCAREfirst's FREE MOBILE APPLICATION
We at HEALTHCAREfirst, Inc., the leading provider of web-based Home Healthcare and Hospice technologies, are pleased to announce the release of a native mobile application for iPhone, iPad and Android. Designed for firstHOMECARE and firstHOSPICE Enterprise users, the new app gives clinicians yet another option to stay connected in the field.
Available at no charge to our customers, the new app offers mobile access to key components of the software including alerts, scheduling and secure instant messaging. As a result of this easy access, Home Health and Hospice agencies will enjoy the benefits of improved compliance, better efficiency and the flexibility to choose the point of care devices that work best for them.
"We understand the needs, challenges and priorities of Home Health and Hospice clinicians caring for patients in the field. While this free app is beneficial for any clinician, imagine contract staff, like therapy, having the ability to download a free iPhone or Android app to their existing smartphone, gaining immediate access to schedules, alerts and other communications regarding patients you've assigned to them," said Bobby Robertson, President and CEO for HEALTHCAREfirst. "We are pleased to be able to offer this app at no charge and are already hard at work innovating future versions to include even more functionality and features."
The mobile application is available now to customers for free download through Android Market and iTunes Store. For more information, please contact HEALTHCAREfirst at 800.841.6095.
Posted by HEALTHCAREfirst Blogger on Mon, Jan 16, 2012 @ 09:40 AM
Don't miss your chance to participate in the premier event for all HEALTHCAREfirst product users! To be held April 23 -25, in San Antonio, TX, the 2012 HEALTHCAREfirst User Conference offers you an opportunity to maximize your technology investment, meet and get to know other product users as well as enhance your skills for more successful results.
This year's conference, Navigating the River of Change, promises to offer you:
Valuable Learning Opportunities
- Attend product sessions on HEALTHCAREfirst's many offerings
- Learn about new products and solutions
- Hear from fellow customers about how they have achieved success with their solutions
Preparation for the Future
- Learn from our industry experts about what the future holds for home health & hospice
- Discover how your HEALTHCAREfirst partnership can prepare you for success
Designed for HEALTHCAREfirst users of all levels and functions, you will come away from this conference better informed, more connected, and ready to navigate the challenges you may face in the future.
New This Year: Pre-Conference Events!
Join us Monday for specialized product sessions designed to provide more in-depth training on your software solution. This is the perfect opportunity for new users or for those interested in learning how to get the most out of their software.
Read what some of last year's attendees said about the User Conference:
“HEALTHCAREfirst User Conference was very educational for all agency roles, from CEO right down to the end users. We will definitely be going back next year!” - Enterprise Edition User
“I benefited from the small workshops where there was not only an opportunity to learn from the presenter, but also from my fellow users. Thank you for providing a good return on my investment!” – CareFacts User
We look forward to spending a few fun days with you in San Antonio!
For more information, or to register for the conference, click here.
Posted by HEALTHCAREfirst Blogger on Mon, Nov 28, 2011 @ 10:33 AM
Includes 28 HEALTHCAREfirst Customers
In a recent article published in Tim Rowan’s Home Care Technology Report HEALTHCAREfirst, the Ozark, Missouri-based provider of web-based software and services for home care, announced that 28 of its customers were recently named to the 2011 HomeCare Elite™ list, the recognition compiled by OCS HomeCare and DecisionHealth.
Elite status is determined using publicly available data from Home Health Compare and CMS Cost Reports. 500 agencies are named to the list each year. Of the 28 HEALTHCAREfirst customers that were chosen as a top-500 provider, seven were further identified as part of the top 100 providers nationwide.
"We are delighted that so many of our valued customers represent the ‘best of the best’ in home health care," said Bobby Robertson, President and CEO of HEALTHCAREfirst. "We are proud to be a part of their success and congratulate them on all of their hard work and dedication."
The OCS HomeCare and DecisionHealth list identifies the top 25 percent of agencies in quality of care, process measure implementation and financial performance.
Posted by HEALTHCAREfirst Blogger on Wed, Nov 23, 2011 @ 12:02 PM
Below is an excerpt from NAHC's press release on the Supercommittee’s inability to reach an agreement on deficit reduction. At HEALTHCAREfirst we strive to bring you the latest industry news fast. HEALTHCAREfirst, Inc., is a provider of leading-edge home health care software and hospice software technologies.
Failure to reach agreement on deficit reduction means no home health co-pays
WASHINGTON D.C. (November 22, 2011) – Val J. Halamandaris, president of The National Association for Home Care and Hospice (NAHC), issued the following statement concerning release of a statement yesterday by the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (supercommittee) that it was unable to reach agreement on a deficit reduction proposal:
“The inability of the supercommittee to reach agreement on a proposal to reduce the budget deficit by $1.2 trillion over the next ten years means that the battle continues to protect home health care for the three and a half million Medicare beneficiaries who receive home health care annually. The sequester process that is triggered by the supercommittee’s result has some advantages for the home health community in that there are no automatic cuts to Medicaid or to Medicare benefits to beneficiaries. However, that process does provide for 2% provider payment cuts totaling $5.6 billion over the next ten years. This is a reduction in support for home health services. Still, it is certainly less than the $20 to $40 billion in beneficiary co-payments and provider payment cuts that were among the suggested proposals considered by the supercommittee.
The future of Medicare and Medicaid is likely to be decided by the choices made in the 2012 elections. The home health care community must continue to demonstrate that home care is both preferred by patients and much less costly than alternative care in hospitals and nursing homes. With 10,000 Baby Boomers turning 65 each day, we must rely more on innovative and cost effective home care. Americans will be living longer, but many will be doing so with multiple chronic illnesses. Home care can and should be used to reduce the tremendous strain that will otherwise be placed on our health care system.”
Get the full version of NAHC’s Statement on the Super Committee’s announcement here.
Posted by HEALTHCAREfirst Blogger on Fri, Sep 30, 2011 @ 04:40 PM
HEALTHCAREfirst is pleased to announce that we have been chosen by the Missouri Chamber of Commerce & Industry as a recipient of the 2011 Fast Track Award. This award recognizes Missouri-based companies that have experienced phenomenal growth over the last three years.
The Missouri Chamber Fast Track Award winners are selected from nominations received from Missouri Chamber members and local chambers of commerce. The Missouri Chamber reviews companies within seven revenue sectors — ranging from businesses with $1 million in annual revenues to businesses with more than $1 billion in annual revenues — and selects the companies that have experienced the greatest rate of growth in each sector throughout the past three years.
“We are proud to be recognized as one the fastest growing companies in Missouri. This award confirms HEALTHCAREfirst’s dedication to providing our customers with the software and services they need to be successful in the home care industry,” said Bobby Robertson, President & CEO of HEALTHCAREfirst.
In addition to recognition at an awards banquet in November, HEALTHCAREfirst will be featured in Missouri Business, the annual magazine published by the Missouri Chamber, and distributed to over 10,000 employers across the state.
For more information about HEALTHCAREfirst’s products and services, please go to our website at www.healthcarefirst.com or call us at 800.841.6095
Posted by Bobby Robertson on Thu, Sep 29, 2011 @ 02:10 PM
I recently read an article published by the Baltimore Sun, in which the first paragraph states, “Amedisys Inc. and other home healthcare providers would rather the U.S. government make the industry swallow a bitter pill of reimbursement cuts today than spread the pain over the next few years.”
The aforementioned article goes on to state that, “…the Alliance for Home Health Quality and Innovation, which includes Amedisys and peers such as Gentiva Health Inc, Almost Family and LHC Group Inc, is lobbying Washington to accelerate the 2012 cuts that are spread out until 2017.” Mr. William Borne, CEO of Amedisys is quoted as saying, “Bring it forward and deal with it now so we can move forward and be more proactive versus reactive,” and, “If we get clarity (on the cuts), it makes those consolidations easy…”.
While Amedisys may want cuts accelerated, the 1200+ agencies that I work with are ABSOLUTELY against acceleration of reimbursement cuts!!! HEALTHCAREfirst will aggressively oppose this position, and in fact, we will push for no further cuts to home care. Home care is the answer to most of the problems CMS is trying to solve! I can introduce CMS to hundreds of you that are making huge differences in your individual communities.
It is very clear to me that Amedisys wants these deep cuts to put further strain on your agencies, so that they can create a scenario where they can acquire your agencies at a discounted price. I’m telling you that your agency stands for all that is good in home health and HEALTHCAREfirst will fight for you in preventing this.
I believe our customers provide a level of care that is very difficult to provide in a company with so many layers of management that the key executives at the top don’t understand the basics of care. People forget how personal the relationship is between a caregiver and the patient. If the caregiver has a direct line of communication with the agency owner, you can bet that when changes need to be made to improve patient care and outcomes, changes will be made.
Now is the time to speak up for your industry. If you would like tell your story of making a difference, improving patient care and reducing costs, I’m inviting you to share it with me. I will carry your message with many others to fight for our great industry.
If any of you will be attending the National Association for Home Care and Hospice convention in Las Vegas, please stop by the HEALTHCAREfirst booth and see me. We will be introducing many new things, such as smartphone access to firstHOMECARE and firstHOSPICE, new Business Intelligence tools and a new (and VERY affordable) Hospital Readmission Reduction technology platform that includes remote patient monitoring.
Bobby
Posted by HEALTHCAREfirst Blogger on Thu, Sep 29, 2011 @ 11:52 AM
HEALTHCAREfirst will be exhibiting at the 2011 National Association for Home Care & Hospice Annual Meeting in Las Vegas, NV, on October 1-4, 2011.
We will be introducing our mobile app for firstHOMECARE and firstHOSPICE, the industry’s first app created exclusively for iPhones and Androids. Stop by for a short demo of the app and you could win an iPad2!
In addition, we will present our new 30-Day Hospital Readmission Rate Reduction Program. We offer a layered technology platform to assist home health agencies in reducing hospital readmission rates and positioning themselves as a valuable resource to hospital partners. Come by our booth to learn more. We will be offering a special rate just for NAHC conference attendees, so you won’t want to miss it.
HEALTHCAREfirst offers the most comprehensive set of software & solutions available to the home care industry including firstHOMECARE and firstHOSPICE, our web-based agency management software solutions, as well as billing, billing recovery and coding services. In addition, we offer industry leading Business Intelligence reporting as well as a physician portal, firstCPO.
NAHC Annual meeting attendees are encouraged to stop by booth #615 to find out why over 1,200 agencies have chosen HEALTHCAREfirst as their first choice for home health and hospice software & services.
Posted by HEALTHCAREfirst Blogger on Wed, Sep 28, 2011 @ 09:15 AM
HEALTHCAREfirst Named One of America’s Fastest Growing Companies for Fourth Consecutive Year
HEALTHCAREfirst, the pioneer of web-based home health care software and services for home care, today announced that we have been named to the 2011 Inc. 5000 list of America’s Fastest Growing Companies for the fourth year in a row.
HEALTHCAREfirst came in at #1425 on the prestigious list, with a 197% three-year growth rate. Additionally, we ranked #106 on the list of fastest growing health companies nationwide and are the 15th fastest growing company in the state of Missouri.
“It is an honor to once again be recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in America,” said HEALTHCAREfirst President and CEO Bobby Robertson. “This recognition is a testament to the quality and innovation of our products as well as the hard work and dedication of our employees. HEALTHCAREfirst has seen tremendous growth in the past few years and we look forward to continuing this trend in the future. ”
HEALTHCAREfirst joins Spirit Airlines, 7-Eleven, television maker Vizio, Honest Tea and Dunkin Donuts, among other prominent brands featured on this year’s list. “Now, more than ever, we depend on Inc. 500/5000 companies to spur innovation, provide jobs, and drive the economy forward,” says Inc. magazine Editor Jane Berentson. “Growth companies, not large corporations, are where the action is.”
The Inc. 5000 list is an exclusive ranking of the fastest growing private companies in America. Rankings are determined according to percentage revenue growth when comparing 2007 to 2010. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2007. Additionally, they must be U.S.-based, privately held, for profit, and independent—not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies—as of December 31, 2010. The companies on this year’s list report having created 350,000 jobs in the past three years, and aggregate revenue among honorees reached $366 billion, up 14% from last year.
For more information about HEALTHCAREfirst’s products and services, go to our website at www.healthcarefirst.com or call us at 800.841.6095.
Posted by HEALTHCAREfirst Blogger on Tue, Sep 27, 2011 @ 03:40 PM
We are so fortunate to have received so many wonderful nominations for the 2011 Compassionfirst Award. The stories that you shared with us prove what we knew all along - the very best caregivers work in home care!
While it was difficult to choose just one winner among all of the touching and thoughtfully written nominations, we are pleased to have chosen Betty Nowlin, Field Staff RN at Accentra Home Health in Oklahoma City, OK. Betty embodies all the qualities of a compassionate and hardworking caregiver, always doing more than is asked of her.
We would also like to recognize the other Compassionfirst Award finalists for their dedication to caregiving:
Kathy Austin
Hospice of Texarkana
Texarkana, TX
Carlos Camacho
Riverside Home Health
Newport News, VA
Kay Rathgeber
New Century Hospice
Harker Heights, TX
Click here to read Betty's nomination letter and to learn more about why she is so special. In the upcoming months, we will be sharing the stories of our finalists, along with the stories of others that have made a difference in the lives of their patients, families and co-workers.
Posted by HEALTHCAREfirst Blogger on Tue, Aug 30, 2011 @ 12:45 PM
Mandated under the Affordable Care Act, bundled payments is a major change in how the government pays for medical care. Instead of paying hospitals, physicians, and other providers separately, this initiative would combine the payment over an episode of care for a specific condition. The goal of the program is to offer clinicians’ incentives to work together and provide better quality of care, resulting in reduced costs.
Medicare Officials Announce Four Bundled Payment Programs
This notice announces a request for applications for organizations to participate in one or more of the initial four models under the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement initiative beginning in 2012.
The initiative will bundle payment across provider sites for multiple services given during an episode of care, which is a single hospital stay and/or recovery from the stay. The idea behind bundled payments is to give providers a greater incentive to coordinate care across settings, which would require advanced use of health information technologies.
The initiative follows a Medicare bundled payment demonstration program for heart bypass surgery that saved Medicare $42.3 million--about 10 percent of expected costs--and saved patients $7.9 million in co-insurance costs, and lowered mortality rates, according to CMS.
The four payment models in the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Initiative are:
- Model 1: An acute care hospital stay only,
- Model 2: The acute care stay plus associated post-acute care,
- Model 3: Just the post-acute care following discharge, and
- Model 4: A single prospective bundled payment that would encompass all services during an inpatient stay by the hospital, physicians and other providers.
Interested organizations must submit a nonbinding letter of intent by Sept. 22, 2011, for the first model and by Nov. 4, 2011, for the other models. Medicare will provide historical claims data to prepare for models 2-4 and organizations wanting the data must file a separate research request packet and data use agreement with the letter of intent.
This bundled reimbursement initiative is just one of several different payment models about to be rolled out by CMS. Accountable Care Organizations (ACO) will begin contracting with CMS on January 1, 2012, for example. Value-based purchasing is another approach toward paying providers that is part of the ObamaCare legislation.
"Applicants would propose the target price, which would be set by applying a discount to total costs for a similar episode of care as determined from historical data," according to an explanation from CMS.
Application Submission Deadlines: Applications must be received on or before October 21, 2011 for Model 1 and March 15, 2012 for Models 2 through 4.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
BundledPayments@cms.hhs.gov for questions regarding the application process of the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement initiative.
Tell us How you Think Medicare Bundled Payments Will Affect Your Agency and Our Industry?