HCAC Leaders Identify Priority Issues
 at Planning Session

     The Board of Directors of HCAC meeting in August identified reimbursement and funding formulas, and the continuous, progressive increase in governmental regulations at all levels, as their top priority concerns for the coming year.

     Association President Sue Brown, Grand Junction, said, "The growing shortage of health care workers is being stretched to the limits by our rapidly aging society and dramatic increases in chronic diseases."

     "In the meantime," Brown said, "the growing mountain of paperwork caused by government regulation decreases productivity and damages staff morale, causing many to leave home care. This comes at a time when funding cuts and reimbursement restrictions force staff reductions, limit wages and make attracting new employees difficult."

    Brown said many issues, opportunities and challenges were considered during the strategic visioning session. It was the charge of the group to identify out of the many, which were of priority concern and which contributed to the seriousness of the situation.

     Thirteen board members were in attendance at the three-hour, facilitated session held at the Lone Tree Country Club south of Denver.

     Participants brainstormed issues and ideas were jotted onto flip chart sheets that were taped to the walls, one concept per sheet. Then participants voted on priorities, using colored dots with assigned values.

     Insufficient reimbursement coupled with skewed funding formulas for home care services were identified as the top concern with a relative value of 8.60. The continuing growth of  government regulations and the resultant increase in paperwork was second with a relative value of 6.85. The growing paperwork burden reduces productivity, increases costs and lowers staff morale. All of these factors reduce a home care agency's ability to provide cost effective care at home.

     The growing shortage of health care workers was voted third with a relative value of 3.05. It was agreed that this issue will worsen as our population ages and as the number of chronic diseases, due in part to the global epidemic of obesity, grows. In addition, the present health care labor force is aging and in need of new replacements, yet there is an intense shortage of faculty in nursing and other health professional schools.

     Technology and telecommunications was viewed as one vehicle for helping home care maintain an edge of cost-effectiveness in the face of growing labor shortages. HCAC has been seeking support for its telehealth initiatives and is currently creating a foundation for telehealth and education.

Technology received a relative value vote of 2.15, placing it 4th in the list of issues, however technology and telehealth remains as one of HCAC's highest priorities.

     "Unfortunately," Brown said, "increases in productivity created through the use of technology and telehealth are threatened by archaic funding schemes within the current funding mechanisms and are undermined by the increases in required paperwork."

     Other areas considered as separate ideas were: the customization of home care required by aging baby boomers and a growing diversity of needs (i.e. pediatric care) which received a relative value of 1.20; the demands of transportation and mobility and rising energy costs, at 1.00; emerging diseases, including global pandemics, and the need for quarantine, .60; our rapidly aging society, .50, and the dramatic rise in chronic diseases, .10.

     Brown emphasized that the issues receiving lower relative values are extremely important and influence home care, but cannot supplant the importance of top priorities in the development of association programming.

     Board members worked through lunch where they regrouped in round tables to represent the association's three councils: Reimbursement/Regulatory Affairs; Legislative/Advocacy Affairs, and Education/Professional Development. Each of the three discussion groups considered current priorities and strategies, as well as recent programs and activities. They next identified areas that could be altered to help address the priority issues voted upon earlier. The result was a "shopping list" of positive actions that the association and its staff will take in order to address home care priorities for the remainder of 2006 and throughout 2007.

     Facilitating the session was Fred Caruso who has conducted a number of planning sessions for HCAC, the earliest of which was in 1983. He has also conducted home care salary surveys and member attitude surveys over the years.

     Attending the meeting were: HCAC President Sue Brown, Home Care of the Grand Valley, Grand Junction; VP Sonya Neumann, Physicians Home Health Care, Colorado Springs; Treasurer Theresa McCoy, Denver; Immediate Past President Sue Birch, Northwest Colorado VNA, Steamboat Springs; Crystal Day, Rehabilitation & VNA, Greeley; Donna Floyd, Delta-Montrose Home Health Services, Delta; David Johnston, Argus Health Network, Pueblo; Keith Maurer, Columbine Home Health Inc., Glenwood Springs; Versa Mooney, Longmont United Home Care, Longmont; Lisa Potter, Centura Health at Home, Denver; Diana Prime, QS Nurses Home Care Services Inc., Colorado Springs; Channie Wright, Bayada Nurses, Denver; Melody Wright, Centura Health at Home, Denver; Ellen Caruso, HCAC Executive Director, Centennial, and Corinne Fey, HCAC Director of Membership Services, Centennial.

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