Wage & Hour Legal Memorandum; Briefings Scheduled for Alliance Members

Over the past months, the Alliance’s Private Care Advisory Committee has held a series of discussions with employment law attorney Allyson Kurker regarding Massachusetts wage & hour laws as they relate to home care agencies and workers.  A labor law attorney with significant experience advising home care agencies, Ms Kurker has researched the broad range of questions raised during those discussions and has prepared a Legal Memorandum on Wage and Hour Issues especially for Alliance members.

The memorandum covers several topics of interest to certified and private care agencies alike, including record keeping and payroll, overtime, exempt vs. non-exempt employees, working time, and issues specific to live-in caregivers.  The Memorandum is posted to the MA Regulatory page of the Alliance’s website (link is at the bottom right).

The Alliance will host two free member forums this month during which Ms Kurker will present the substance of the memorandum and address additional questions from the Alliance membership.   Agency CEOs and HR specialists are especially encouraged to attend one of the sessions:  Tuesday, May 22, at Great To Be Home Care, 2024 Westover Road, Chicopee, or Thursday, May 24, at CareWell Health Group, 141 Longwater Drive, Norwell.

Both sessions will include a continental networking breakfast at 8:30 followed by an Alliance Update presented by Alliance Executive Director Patricia Kelleher at 9:15, and the Wage & Hour presentation at 9:30.

The sessions are open to Alliance members only.  Pre-registration is required by calling Stephanie Drakes at 617/482-8830.

FYI: “Home Health Prospective Payment System” Fact Sheet Revised

The Medicare Learning Network has recently released the revised “Home Health Prospective Payment System” fact sheet and is now available in downloadable format. It includes the following information: background, consolidated billing requirements, criteria that must be met to qualify for home health services, coverage of home health services, elements of the HH PPS, updates to the HH PPS, and healthcare quality. This can be used as a handy tool for new employees to home health care!

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

Disaster Prep – Is Your Agency Ready?

Home care agencies have unique responsibilities to their clients during disasters, epidemics, and terrorist attack.

But they also have unique resources. The simplest way to prepare for a disaster is to speak to your clients about the matter and to encourage them to take precautions and make plans.  A great starting point is the new Disaster Preparedness: For Seniors By Seniorsbrochure from the American Red Cross.  This handsome, 13-page brochure covers all the basics — with special attention to seniors including: Building a disaster kit (including medications); Planning an escape route; Staying informed after a disaster takes place; and Knowing what resources are available; Best of all, the Massachusetts Dept. of Public Health is making copies available free of charge.  Just download the order form, send it in, and they’ll send you up to 500 copies.

Even more importantly, disaster preparedness is vitally important — literally — for home care agencies. That’s why the Alliance partnered with DPH to develop the the Home Health Care Emergency Preparedness Handbook. The Handbookpresents Alliance best practices for preparing for natural disasters, epidemics, and terrorism. Contents include: Standards of Care; Infection Control; Patient Tracking Controls; Emergency Communication Resources; Home Health Care Emergency Planning Resources; Emergency Planning Training Resources; Volunteer Opportunities The Handbook also contains extensive appendixes on: Hazard Vulnerability Analysis Biological Weapons Agents Emergency Policies & Procedures CMS Altered Standards of Care The Handbook comes in a three-ring binder and is available to Alliance Members for $25/copy, or $100 for five copies.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

Spread the Word with Our New Home Care Posters

The Alliance’s 2011 Home Care Posters are now available for order.  Handsome and professionally-printed, they’re perfect for display in councils on aging, senior centers, hospitals, doctors offices, Churches, or anywhere people in need of home care might see them!

The posters direct viewers to our website, www.thinkhomecare.org, where they can use our online Find An Agency or our Print Directories to find an agency that suits their needs.

Tens of thousands of people in Massachusetts live independently at home with the help of home care. If your family needs help, our online directory can match you with the agency that best suits your need, whether it’s for care 24 hours a day, or just a few hours a week.

Details:

• Shipped in packages of two, with one poster of each design;
• Posters are full-color and printed on 100-lb, 11 x 17″ cardstock;
• Shipped flat and with an extra cardboard insert so posters are protected and ready to mount the moment they arrive;
• All packages include four self-adhesive, wall-friendly strips for easy mounting and removal.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

2011 Resource Directories Arrive!

More than 2,200 2011 Home Health Resource Directories arrived at the Alliance’s office today.  We’ll being mailing out copies over the next few weeks.

The 2011 edition  combines thoroughness with ease-of-use to give you the best guide to home care services in Massachusetts.  If you’re a nurse, social worker, GCM, or anyone else who needs to find the best home care agency to fit your patient’s needs, this is the one resource you need.

The Resource Directory lists our 189 agencies alphabetically — 15 more than last year — complete with full contact information and a description of the services they offer.  It also contains a detailed town-by-town cross reference that lets you find local agencies can provide service to your patient.  Sample pages are available here.

New to the 2011 Edition, the Resource Directory explicitly lists which agencies are Medicare Certified and which have received the Alliance’s Agency Accreditation.

You may order copies on our website or by using the form below, or can download an order form to fax back to our office.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

2011 Private Care Guides Ship Tomorrow

The Alliance will begin shipping copies of its 2011 Guide to Private Home Care Services tomorrow.  The Guide is designed for patients and clients, both to educate them about their private home care options, and to help them choose from our 121 member agencies that accept private pay.

We will ship copies of the Guide to every hospital, Aging Service Access Point (ASAP), Council on Aging (COA), Geriatric Specialist and Oncologist, Veterans’ Hospital, and dozens of other referral sources.

Copies of the Guide are available  for order on our website, as is a downloadable PDF version; Guides are always available free of charge with no shipping charges on copies of 12 or less.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

2010 Private Care Guides SOLD OUT!

As of this past Friday, the Alliance has sold out of copies of its 2010 Guide to Private Home Care Services!

That’s 12,000 copies distributed to Councils on Aging, ASAPs, hospitals, VA centers, doctors offices, and — most importantly — families and individuals around Massachusetts.

Copies of the 2011 Guide are available for pre-order, and will begin shipping next month.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

Attending Mass-ALFA

The Alliance will be exhibiting at the Massachusetts Assisted Living Facilities  (Mass-ALFA) Conference tomorrow, distributing Resource Directories and seeking new referral sources for our members.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

Announcing Agency Accreditation Program

In the absence of meaningful licensure requirements for home care providers in Massachusetts, the Home Care Alliance has established a series of Accreditation Standards as a means to promote quality services, ethical business standards, and superior employment practices.  The goal of these standards is to ensure that the clients served by agencies accredited by the Home Care Alliance of Massachusetts receive safe, competent, quality, and respectful home care services.

Benefits of Accreditation:

The Home Care Agency Accreditation Program of the Home Care Alliance of Massachusetts allows agencies that provide in-home client services to demonstrate that they meet high standards of quality.  Accreditation:

• Shows clients and families that your caregivers are direct employees and that you carry workers’ compensation, liability insurance, and an employee dishonesty bond.
• Demonstrates that your caregivers receive background checks, screening, and proper training for their job.
• Proves your commitment to following ethical and legal guidelines in your business operations.
• Provides a competitive edge in the marketplace and can contribute to securing new business.
• Enhances staff recruitment and development by showing your commitment to fair labor standards.

Accredited agencies receive recognition in several ways:

• Use of the Alliance’s Accreditation Logo to show your commitment to quality on your website, brochures, and stationery.
• Listing on the Alliance’s website as an Accredited Agency.
• For Alliance member agencies, designation as an Accredited Agency in the Alliance’s print directories and in the Find an Agency function on the Alliance’s website, which enhances your visibility and credibility.

To learn more, visit the program’s website and download an application today.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

2010 Compensation & Surveys – Participation Open

For over fifteen years, the Alliance’s Compensation & Benefits Survey Reports have provided participating agencies reliable, comprehensive, local compensation data on a broad range of job titles in home care.

As we did last year, we are conducting two separate surveys: one for certified agencies, another for private agencies.  We are released the certified agency survey questions  on May 26, 2010, and will release the private care agency survey in June.  Agencies can submit data and receive reports for either or both sections of the survey.

To access the survey materials, visit the Survey Participation Page/Order Form.  Completed surveys must be returned to dwudyka@westminsterassociates.com by June 10, 2010.

The price structure is the same as last year: $149 for the certified survey; $79 for the private care survey; or $199 for both.  Note that these prices are for participating agencies only!  Agencies that do not submit data and payment by will be charged more than double the participant fees to receive the reports.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.