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The Antlers Hilton in Colorado Springs Welcomes HCAC in May 2010!

Home Care Association of Colorado's
40th Annual Convention and Home Care Exhibition

Carrying the Torch: World Class Care

Thursday, May 13 and Friday, May 14, 2010
The Antlers Hilton Hotel
Colorado Springs, Colorado

HCAC's 40th Annual Convention & Home Care Exhibition will feature a well-rounded program designed for home care, private duty, hospice and HME managers, executives and clinical staff.

You will discover the finest education and networking opportunities in a fabulous location. We hope you will make plans now to attend, and perhaps use this event as an opportunity to gather for your staff retreat. 

Watch for more information on this web site.

This outstanding line-up of speakers and topics will count towards Colorado's Home Care Licensure Administrator / Agency Manager required education. Click on underlined topic to read a description of the session as available.
 

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Session & Speaker Descriptions
(Updated as information becomes available)

General Session: Opening Keynote Address
"Lighting the Flame of World Class Service"
by Polly Rehnwall, MA
Senior Manager
Simione Consultants
Salt Lake City, Utah

In today's ultra-competitive home care environment, too many agencies focus on cutting costs instead of growing volume. This session will focus on some key strategies to grow referrals from professionals and provide world class service to patients and consumers.

Upon completion of this session, participants will be able to:
1. Redesign the referral response model using cost-effective talent and processes;
2. Implement post-discharge "Caring Calls" to improve service and build loyalty;
3. Start building brand awareness by improving staff identity and collateral consistency;
4. Increase referrals by improving service to physician referral partners, and
5. Develop better response and service strategies for liaisons in hospitals and LTC facilities.

About the Speaker:  Back by popular demand, Polly Rehnwall will get your blood pumping from the very start of this year's convention. A graduate of the University of Minnesota, Polly has been a home care consultant since 1993, with clients from more than 150 home care and hospice agencies. She has given more than 300 presentations in the home care and hospice industry, including annual presentations at NAHC and keynote addresses at many state associations, including Colorado in 2008.


"Health Care Reform: Its Impact on Home Care"
by William A. (Bill) Dombi, Esq.
Vice President for Law
National Association for Home Care & Hospice
and Director, Center for Health Care Law
Washington, D.C.

HH Licensing Standards / Home Care Financial Management (1 hour)
National health care reform will change the delivery of home health and hospice in Colorado and across the nation. Some changes will be positive, some will be negative. Back by popular request, Bill Dombi will discuss the very latest updates including news on Medicare reductions, Medicaid changes, new employment practices and oversight, and much more.


"Developing a Disease Management Program"
by Joan Haizlip, MSN, RN, CS
Director of Programs and Education
Innovative Healthcare Solutions/VNA First
Naperville, Ill.

Needs of the Fragile/Ill (1 hour)
Chronic disease management is a top priority in health care today and an important part of home care's business model. Savvy home care leaders can readily identify that reimbursement changes are looming for home care. In this presentation participants will learn the "nuts and bolts" of disease management for home care. Best practice tools and strategies will be discussed. Attendees will see specific samples of clinical pathways, inclusion criteria, risk stratification, telephone questionnaire, marketing strategies and much, much more..

Upon completion of this session, participants will be able to:
1. Define three characteristics of a disease management program;
2. Identify the role of standardized protocols, patient education and telehealth in a disease management program;
3. Identify a staff education curriculum for a disease management program;
4. Identify two best practices in a disease management program, and
5. Identify one "win-theme" for marketing disease management programs across the continuum.

About the Speaker:  Joan Haizlip is an Education Consultant for Innovative Healthcare Solutions, Inc. She is responsible for education and consulting on critical pathways for home care and disease management programs. Prior to her current positions, she held many clinical and managerial roles in the home care setting. From 1997 and to 2001 she worked at St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center in South Bend, Ind. where she was responsible for the development and implementation of community health programs. Prior to that, she oversaw clinical services and program development for both intermittent and private duty for St. Joseph's VNA. Joan has nearly 30 years of clinical and nursing management experience in acute care and home care. She holds a Masters Degree from the University of Delaware in Cardio-Pulmonary Nursing and she is a certified clinical nurse specialist.

"Boundaries II"
by Georgia Priestley, MA
Employee Trainer
Total Longterm Care
Lakewood, Colo.

Behavior Management (1 hour)
This Boundaries presentation will be focused on training supervisors to help staff develop and use proper boundaries. Back by popular demand, Georgia Priestley will cover very practical applications to home care situations and will give supervisors the skills needed to manage their staff in this area.

Upon completion of this session, participants will be able to:
1. Understand the importance of “soft skills” in management;
2. Help supervisors value each staff as an individual and help them develop from where they are currently;
3. Help supervisors understand what a “boundary” is and how it affects their staff;
4. Help supervisors with skills to teach Boundaries, and.
5. Help supervisors measure success in their staff developing boundaries.

About the Speaker:  Juggling two jobs, one as Employee Trainer for Total Longterm Care and one as Regional Manager of a CPR and First Aid Company, Georgia Priestley, MA, has mastered the art of coaching, working with people and public speaking. Prior to her current position, she taught and coached at the university level for 17 years where she addressed many clinics and conferences and she spent eight years in full-time ministry and counseling where she spoke at many retreats and conferences. She holds a Masters in Education from Ball State University. 

General Session: "Your Brand. What Brand?"
by Polly Rehnwall, MA
Senior Consultant
Simione Consultants
Salt Lake City, Utah

Financial Management (1 hour)
As competition heats up, it becomes increasingly important that your agency is differentiated from your competitors. Just reiterating the Medicare benefit simply doesn't cut it anymore. This program provides practical tips on how to enhance your visibility in the communities you serve so that referral sources and consumers won't just choose home care, but will choose your home care agency.

Upon completion of this session, participants will be able to:
1. Identify branding opportunities: Observe staff in the field, review collateral materials, assess for consistency;
2. Develop a branding strategy: Simple steps to consistency, apparel and tools challenges, staff input, and
3. Implement branding program: Roll out, staff roles, evaluation processes.


"Competing with Private Hire Caregivers & Nurses"
by Brad Geddes
Administrator & Co-Owner
Aspen Home Health Care, Inc
Carbondale, Colo.

Financial Management (1 hour)
It may be that our fastest growing competition is coming from families hiring caregivers (and nurses) privately, thus bypassing the labor, nursing, and licensing laws and regulations. In some areas "Private Hire" is already the largest competition. In this presentation, successful local home care agency operator Brad Geddes will characterize the problem and explore the psyche of the client and caregiver who believe they prefer this model. Brad will suggest some basic and innovative approaches to complete with the indistinct and amorphous competitor including advertising messaging, client and caregiver interview techniques, sales approaches, referral education and contractual strategies. 

Upon completion of this session, participants will be able to understand:
1. The "Mercenary" caregiver mentality;
2. Why some clients prefer "Private Hire;"
3. Why clients will often pay equal to or more than the agency hourly rate to "Private Hire" caregivers;
4. Why referral sources will encourage "Private Hire" in some cases;
5. How to take cost out of the equation;
6. When to disengage the sales process when competing with "Private Hire," and
7. How and when to co-exist with "Private Hire."

About the Speaker:  After 30 years of technical, project management and operations experience in complex technical and engineering businesses, Brad Geddes (Georgia Tech, Bachelor of Chemical Engineering) and his wife / business partner Terrie (a registered nurse) moved to Aspen, Colorado to open up a private duty home care agency. Ten years later, Brad is happy to teach others the secrets he has learned. He has presented at a National Private Duty Training Conference and at HCAC's annual convention. He is a charter member of HCAC's new Private Duty Section.


"Remote Monitoring and Home-Based Telehealth:
Legal Issues and Policy Concerns"
by Deborah A, (Debby) Randall, Esq.
Health Law Attorney and Consultant
Law Offices of Deborah Randall
Chevy Chase, Md.

Needs of the Fragile/Ill  (1 hour)
When the focus is on monitoring, maintenance and disease management for individuals living in and ambulating from personal homes or clustered living units, the policies affecting telehealth advancement may have a different slant. In addition the technical and legal arrangements and agreements most likely will have different parties, goals and strategic value. The competencies and willingness of the patient/family will be paramount in achieving both research and therapeutic goals. This session, presented by health law attorney and consultant Deborah Randall, will consider telehealth policy issues, liability, contractual and business issues, and medical device regulations as they affect telehealth and telehomecare, and will explore particular challenges for persons with diminishing capacity and those with terminal illness.

Upon completion of this session, participants will be able to:
1. Identify opportunities for the use of telehealth in home care and hospice;
2. Describe the licensure and liability barriers, and
3. Identify funding and innovative structural approaches to the use of telehealth in community-based services.

About the Speaker:  For the past 25 years, Deborah Randall has concentrated her legal and consulting efforts on aging services and chronic disease care management; long term care, home care and hospice and other community-based services; health regulations and reimbursement; telehealth, health information technology and remote monitoring, and health care compliance. A graduate of Harvard University and Columbia University School of Law, Debby is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Alzheimer's Association and is a Fellow of the American Health Lawyers Association. She served two years as General Counsel for the National Association for Home Care and Hospice.

"Hospice Heightened Compliance Concerns"
by Deborah A, (Debby) Randall, Esq.
Health Law Attorney and Consultant
Law Offices of Deborah Randall
Chevy Chase, Md.

Deborah Randall will discuss how rising numbers of hospice and home care investigations by federal and state fraud units are challenging compliance officers, health systems, long term care organizations and the community-based health services industries. Like Operation Restore Trust in the past, the issues include coverage, physician relationships and discharge planning from institutional care settings. But there are new concerns as well: quality of care in hospice under the new conditions of participation; dramatic growth in home care initial start-ups, and acquisitions of going concerns due to survey moratoriums; credentialing issues and new abuses in the Medicaid personal care area, and questions abut new and promising telehealth and other medical devices which face HIPAA, licensure, consumer protection and ethical questions.

Upon completion of this session, participants will be able to:
1. Identify why home care and hospice investigations and settlements forecast industry liabilities;
2. Tailor compliance reviews of health industry relationships and contracts, and
3. Describe patient-centric trends and how health IT can increase compliance needs.

"Home Care Clinicians - Carrying the Torch of Survey Success"
by Donna Floyd, RN, BSN
Vice President
The Crag Business Group
Montrose, Colo.

Licensing Standards / Supervision (1 hour)
This session will prepare home care clinicians who work day to day with consumers as well as the clinical managers who lead them for their next survey. Don't miss popular speaker Donna Floyd in this interactive presentation and discussion of current state licensure rules and the regulations that are the framework of the survey process. Participants will be challenged to prepare themselves and improve their best practices to strengthen the agency and limit the risk of deficiencies.

Upon completion of this session, participants will be able to:
1. Identify the current rules and regulations that clinicians in the field are responsible for during survey;
2. List at least two real-world tactics to prepare for surveys, whether internal or external, and
3. List at least two current survey issues in Colorado that clinicians can positively impact.

"Licensure & Survey Update"
Roundtable Discussions with the HCAC Board of Directors

Licensing Standards (1 hour)

General Session: Keynote Address
"The Difference is Me"
by Marcylle Combs, RN, BS, CHCE
President and CEO
Foundation Management Services
Denton, Texas

Behavior Management (1 hour)
Each one of us can make a difference in the world of home care and hospice simply by utilizing the things in our daily lives, growing where we are planted and taking advantage of opportunities that are before us. The opportunity might take us by surprise in the heat of the moment and we will be unaware of all that is at stake. If we do what’s right, we will look back and see that it was a defining moment for us as leaders and as individuals. Each one of us has the opportunity to be the hero. In that moment we will learn something about ourselves, about our world and patients around us and will have a story to tell our children.

About the Speaker:  As President and Chief Executive Officer of Foundation Management Services, Marcylle Combs’ day to day schedule is filled with home care and hospice financials and operations. But her real passion is being an advocate for the patient. Her heart is especially compassionate for those in rural areas where care is limited. She encourages those around her to get to know their elected officials and educate them on the essential need for home care.

Marcylle recently had the opportunity to speak in Belize on Hospice Care for the Belize Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. She is best known for speaking nationwide on home care topics, cutting edge business issues and for keeping her audience awake. She founded FMS in 1995 and in her 25 years of home care experience she has held many positions including field nurse, director, administrator and owner/president of a highly successful multi-agency home health company. Marcylle is actively involved with state and national home care associations and currently serves on the Texas Association for Home Care Defense Council.


"S.U.R.C.H. - A Utilization Review Program for Home Health"
Arnie Cisneros, PT
President
Home Health Strategic Management
Lansing, Mich.

Financial Management (1 hour)
The room will come alive when Arnie Cisneros walks on stage to demonstrate S.U.R.C.H. This exciting QA program that utilizes UR mechanisms employed by hospitals to manage care has been presented at numerous state association annual meetings and has been featured in CARING magazine, The Remington Report, and Decision Health's Home Care Outcomes in 2009. Agencies across the country that have installed this programming methodology have experienced improved clinical outcomes while improving productivity. Accurate Start of Care programming is the first step in producing and delivering audit-proof care and this UR mechanism assures reimbursable programming. "Our nurses love SURCH" exclaimed one home care director from New Jersey when describing the program that "can be easily replicated by anyone."

Upon completion of this session, participants will be able to:
1. Describe the history of the Medicare Home Health benefit and how the PPS model utilizes the OASIS-C and OBQI methods to identify programming needs:
2. Demonstrate the SURCH method of utilization review and its effect on clinical and fiscal outcomes;
3. Demonstrate the SURCH mechanism and its effects on real-time programming and care delivery, and
4. Identify how to employ UR principles to create home health care plans that conform to Fiscal Intermediary and RAC requirements.

About the Speaker:  Arnie Cisneros, PT, has provided clinical services program development and management consultation in geriatric rehab and home health since 1979. He is known for his refinement of clinical delivery mechanisms, the integration of new protocols at the staff level and the adaptation of traditional care philosophies to address current health care initiatives. As president of Home Health Strategic Management, Arnie presents nationally on utilization review for home care, best practice adaptation and clinical management for quality outcomes. He authors "Home Health Forum," a bi-weekly column addressing contemporary home care issues. He is a graduate of The Ohio State University School of Physical Therapy.


"Best Practices for Wound Care in the Home Setting"
Debbie Smith, RN, BS, CWOCN
Consultant
Visiting Nurse Corp. of Colorado
Denver, Colo.

Needs of Fragile/Ill (1 hour)
Home care nurses are regularly challenged with wound care dilemmas. How do we survey all the evidence and determine the wound treatment options and yet still provide the most cost effective and best outcomes for our home care patients. During this presentation we will examine the old and new data to determine best debridement techniques, assessment for infections, treatment for non-healing wounds and wound care options for each.

Objectives:
1. Differentiate wound infection vs. non-healing wound;
2. Identify strategies for troubleshooting non healing wounds;
3. Describe appropriate debridement techniques, when to initiate, and
4. Discuss wound care options.


"Recruiting & Retaining the Gamer Generation"
by Marcylle Combs, RN, BS, CHCE
President / CEO
Foundation Management Services
Denton, Texas

Staff Training (1 hour)
Over the next 15 years large numbers of RNs will retire, leading to a further demand for nurses. However, interest in nursing has lessened since other careers for women have opened up to them. Beginning around 2015, the size of the RN workforce will start to decrease in size as the demand increases.

This will be a fun session that will describe characteristics of two different generations and how they look at the work force today. Marcylle Combs will also discuss lessons that games teach, specific recruiting tools and easy retention ideas to implement into your agency that will make a positive and impactful difference in how you recruit and retain the gamer generation. 

Upon completion of this session, participants will be able to:
1. Describe ways to retain and develop caring employees in this age group;
2. Define five characteristics of the gamer generation and how they affect the workplace, and
3. Describe ways to recruit the gamer generation.
 

"Audit Findings in Home Health"
Arnie Cisneros, PT
President
Home Health Strategic Management
Lansing, Mich.

Quality Management (1 hour)
How does an agency prepare for audit scrutiny? Headquartered in Michigan, Arnie Cisneros has had a front row seat as audits performed by fiscal intermediaries served as a warm-up for the RAC era. Having analyzed audited cases from multiple agencies in multiple states, Cisneros describes denied care in clinical terms that can help providers identify claim concerns that exist in their own programs. Specific dissections of partial denials illustrate areas where clinical improvements can help agencies re-wire care delivery for future stability and success. This session is important for all levels of home health professionals.

Upon completion of this session, participants will be able to:
1. Identify general areas of exposure in terms of clinical delivery that create audit concerns in home care;
2. Interpret common types of care delivery in home health programming that is being denied by auditors in 2010:
3. Create OASIS-C based care plans that are responsive to clinical needs while delivering covered care, and
4. Develop a pre-emptive correction plan for your agency to re-wire care delivery to meet audit requirements.

"Regulatory Panel Discussion"
Moderated by Ellen Caruso, HCAC Executive Director
** Timothy X. Sokas, Senior Assistant to the Attorney General, Colorado Attorney General's Office (Fraud & Abuse in Home Care)
* * Sean-Casey King, Home &Community Based Services Rates Analyst, Colorado Dept. of Health Care Policy & Financing, Denver, Colo. (Medicaid home care rate study, telehealth, and other topics)
* * M. Elaine McManis, RN, Program Manager,  Primary Care and Community Based Programs, Health Facilities and EMS Division, Colorado Dept. of Public Health & Environment
* * Judy M. Hughes, RN, Section Chief, Acute, Primary, and Community Based Programs, Health Facilities and EMS Division, Colorado Dept. of Public Health and Environment

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