CEO Report – Julie Reynolds

CEO Report for BOD meeting 3/20/2014

General Updates:

We have completed our implementation of the electronic paystub program and it has proven to be very positive, improving efficiencies in payroll. We have been doing a test run of the mileage program and have not found any saving thus far. Mary is doing a few more tests before we determine whether or not to utilize the program.

We have had one nurse get into a car accident while working which injured her back (she had previous back issues), other cars fault. She has been out several weeks and is scheduled for back surgery next week.

Medicare has been very busy with sending us addition documentation requests (ADR’s) 20 YTD, last year we had 15 in total. This is a substantial administrative burden and they hold payment until submitted and approved.

We have not had the expected referral numbers from the greater Portsmouth area, but we are starting to see more over the past few weeks. We have increased our visibility at the hospitals, physician offices and rehab facilities in the expansion area, along with increased advertising.

We have been working collaboratively with WDH in managing patients under their Medicare (MC) demonstration project for bundled payments for patients with lower extremity joint replacement and strokes.

Technology updates:

Received the HealthInformation Exchange (HIE) grant of $7500.00. We have purchased the server with this funding to give us more data storage space which will improve our current storage issues and allow us to manage data through the HIE.

Our software vendor, Allscripts, released an update that we have implemented. This update improves our ability to manage reports and data. There is another update due in April that we will need to do in order to meet the new MC requirements for hospice.

Homecare updates:

Behavioral health program is going well;we have several patients on the program.The team meets regularly for continued education for program development. All team members took the exam and passed their certification test. We are tracking patient outcomes on these patients –should have results within a couple of months. The second round of training for staff is scheduled for April; we will be sending 3-4 more staff to this training.

Hospice updates:

MC is now requiring hospice providers to provide MC with specific data information called the hospice data set. This data set will be imbedded into our electronic medical record. There is also new regulation that has much controversy with the understanding of the rule and the implementation. MC is requiring hospices to go through an extensive prior authorization process for medications that are not covered under the hospice benefit and billed to MC part D. We are in the process of developing a process that ensure compliance with the new rule and minimize the negative effects. More to come-implementation date 5/1/14.

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Life Care updates:

Continues to grow… Personal care service provider (PCSP) training offered in March

Other:

Paul Drager was able to arrangean appointment with Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter’s aide,Patrick Carroll, in Rochester. Paul and I met with him and educated him on our organization and why Carol Shea-Porter should support homecare and hospice in adequate MC funding. This was avery successful meeting; Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter wrote a letter to the CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner expressing her concerns about home health issues. We continue to fight nationally for that address the following issues;

  • Retroactively delay implementation of the recently imposed 3.5% rebasing cut to MC Home health rates
  • Oppose MC co-pays for home health
  • Relay the continued administrative burden of the home health F2F burden

I was approached by the CEO at Franklin VNA to discuss opportunities to collaborate together and a few weeks later I was also approached by Central NH VNA CEO to discuss opportunities. This was reported to executive committee at the last meeting with extensive discussions. I have a meeting scheduled with Franklin VNA on 3/17. Plan to discuss more at full board meeting.

New sign is up and very visible.

Annual report is complete and will be available at board meeting. The agency evaluation is also complete, but I will save paper and post to the board portal.

I will be attending the VNAA annual meeting in April.

Board evaluation:Board evaluation results have returned. The executive committee will be reviewing the results at their next meeting and report results back to the board at the May meeting with recommendations. One of the questions asked that some of the board members were not aware was “Who serves as the official spokesperson for the organization”. CEO is the official spokesperson along with the Board president and Susan Paquette Director of Advancement. There were several other unknown answers that we will answer formally at the next board meeting in May. If you have any questions at all do not hesitate to call me anytime.

Save the dates: Annual Dinner/Silent auction is scheduled for Saturday November 8th and the employee/volunteer recognition breakfast is scheduled for Tuesday December 2nd. Both events will be held at the OAKS. Your attendance at both of these events is very important and would be appreciated.

Board of Director resources- If you are looking for information/resources about being a board member, we are a member of the NH Center for Non-Profit and one of their resources is NONPROFIT NEXT. Go to .org and you will find a wide range of topics.