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Tim Rogers posted on March 04, 2010 10:56
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Tim Rogers, CEO
Phone: 919-848-3450
Fax: 919-848-2355
E-mail: timrogers@homeandhospicecare.org
North Carolina Home Health Agencies Rank 2nd in the Nation in Participation in National Campaign to
Reduce Avoidable Hospitalizations and Improve Medication Management
Raleigh, NC (March 4, 2010) – Not quite two months into the national home health quality improvement campaign kicked off on January 13th at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) headquarters in Baltimore, MD, North Carolina Home Health Agencies have indicated their dedication to improving the health status of North Carolinians and are ranked 2nd in the nation in the percentage of agencies participating in the National Campaign.
Known as the Home Health Quality Improvement (HHQI) National Campaign, the initiative is a grassroots movement designed to unite home health stakeholders and multiple health care settings under a shared vision of reducing avoidable hospitalizations and improving medication management. These goals will be accomplished through the distribution of tools, resources, guidelines, information and best practice education to home health agencies across the country that agree to participate.
The Association for Home & Hospice Care of North Carolina (AHHC) is serving as a Local Area Network for Excellence (LANE) for NC. LANEs are stakeholder organizations that serve as the central hubs of activity in the HHQI National Campaign. These key partners create campaign awareness, provide participant encouragement and facilitate communication among agencies. LANEs also facilitate agency recruitment.
“We are committed to working in this partnership with CMS to improve clinical outcomes for patients and to prevent unnecessary hospitalizations. We are very proud that NC Home Health Agencies are national leaders in this endeavor.” said Tim Rogers, CEO of AHHC.
The Association for Home & Hospice Care of NC is a non-profit trade association representing home health care agencies, hospice care agencies and facilities, and licensed home care agencies.
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Carter Wrenn posted on February 19, 2010 21:44
For Immediate Release:
Contact Tim Rogers 919-848-3450 (office) 919-961-3555 cell
February 19, 2010
Today, the Honorable Donald W. Overby, Administrative Law Judge with the North Carolina Office of Administrative Hearings, entered an Order enjoining the Department of Health and Human Services from recalculating hours of services for Medicaid recipients of Personal Care Services using a new mathematical formula specifically designed by the Department to drastically cut in-home service hours with no individual assessment. If the injunction sought by the Association for Home & Hospice Care of North Carolina (“AHHC”) had not been entered, the Department intended to send out nearly 37,000 letters to the elderly, disabled, and chronically ill that receive these in-home services cutting average hours by over 40%.
Judge Overby heard three days of testimony on the injunction motion, including the testimony of nurses, family members, and caregivers, who told the judge that these drastic cuts would cause tremendous harm to the individuals who depend on these services and that many would be forced into hospital emergency rooms and more expensive institutional care.
AHHC filed this lawsuit because the Department was ignoring the medical needs of recipients and not following the law. In his Order, Judge Overby expressed great concern about testimony by the Medicaid Director Dr. Craigan Gray that his agency is bound to follow the law only if it has the money! As the Order states: “The state surely cannot and would not tolerate such a position by its corporate and individual citizens.” It is AHHC’s position that Medicaid must follow the law in all cases and not continue perpetuating untruths about the numbers of people ineligible for the services.
“We could not be more delighted with the court’s decision in ruling on behalf of 37,000 PCS patients” said Tim Rogers, CEO of the Association for Home and Hospice Care. “The court stated emphatically medical necessity is the key to who should receive care – and that has been our point all along. In the decision, Judge Overby commented that the faces and plights of individual PCS recipients and their medical needs could not be ignored.
“There has been a lot of political rhetoric from DHHS Secretary Lanier Cansler and Medicaid officials claiming they were not cutting care to any patient who needed it. In fact, they are cutting care to needy, qualified patients not based on medical need but a math formula without a physical examination of a single patient by the State.
It’s just common sense a bureaucrat sitting at a computer in Raleigh can’t tell if an eighty year grandmother who is legally blind, diabetic, and an amputee say, in Manteo, is sick and needs home care services. “The injunction halts Secretary Cansler’s plan. On behalf of the patients cared for by North Carolina’s home care industry, we are grateful for this decision and look forward to the full hearing on April 26. Today, the voices of North Carolina’s elderly, disabled, and chronically ill citizens were heard.”
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posted on December 10, 2009 21:41
The following Op-Ed by Tim Rogers, CEO of the Association for Home and Hospice Care, was published in the News and Observer in response to an earlier editorial by DHHS Secretary Lanier Cansler claiming critical medical care to elderly and disabled patients on Medicaid is not being cut.
Published Thu, Dec 10, 2009 02:00 AM
Modified Thu, Dec 10, 2009 06:33 AM
RALEIGH Over 37,000 elderly and disabled citizens in North Carolina rely upon the assistance of trained home care aides to be able to remain in their own homes. They need assistance with such basic activities as bathing, dressing, eating, toileting and ambulation. This Medicaid program, called Personal Care Services, saves North Carolina many millions of dollars, because most of these elderly and disabled individuals would be in much more expensive nursing homes and rest homes without this basic assistance.
Unfortunately, this cost-effective, essential program is under siege with recent plans by the state Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to cut over 8,000 elderly and disabled people from the program and reduce the services for the remaining 29,000 to such an extent that most will no longer be able to remain at home.
DHHS recently signed a $24 million non-competitive, no-bid contract with a vendor that will take control over the determination of which elderly and disabled persons can receive in-home assistance and how many hours of care they will receive. The stated objective of this contract is to cut over 8,600 elderly and disabled people from the Personal Care Services program and cut hours of services by an average of 45 percent for the rest. These cuts are being planned even though doctors have ordered the services as being medically necessary for each individual in the program.
To illustrate the impact of the service cuts, an elderly person who needs assistance with bathing and eating will receive less than half the hours he or she was previously receiving - 20 hours or less a month. This is not even an hour a day.
Most of us believe it is necessary to be able to take a bath and eat every day. However, those individuals who rely on the help of aides to be able to perform these tasks will have to decide whether they want to eat on a Monday or a Wednesday, but certainly not every day.
A study conducted by the AARP Public Policy Institute shows that persons needing assistance with two activities of daily living (such as bathing and eating) require four times as much assistance as the department plans to provide with its changed policies.
The elderly and disabled who rely on this Medicaid program also will no longer have the assistance of an aide to do grocery shopping or pick up medicines. Perhaps DHHS has concluded that this is an inappropriate service that must be eliminated, but for the many thousands of elderly and disabled who have no other way of getting food and medicines, it is essential to have this assistance to remain at home.
Not only is DHHS' plan cruel and unfair to the elderly and disabled who need this program, it is shortsighted. Many of the 8,600 individuals who DHHS plans to eliminate from the program, and the many thousands more who will have their services drastically reduced, will have to be cared for in more expensive rest homes and nursing homes. This will be much more costly for the Medicaid program and taxpayers.
Many thousands of aides also will lose their jobs, at a time when North Carolina's unemployment rate is already above 10 percent. If these cuts are a matter of the Medicaid budget, then it makes no sense to take actions that will increase the budget by forcing people out of their homes and into more expensive institutions.
DHHS should stop its plans to cut this essential Medicaid home care program that allows so many elderly and disabled people to remain in their own homes and communities.
Timothy R. "Tim" Rogers is CEO of the Association for Home & Hospice Care of North Carolina.
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Tim Rogers posted on November 09, 2009 10:41
Medicaid Director Craigan L. Gray is cutting home care to 350 Medicaid patients who suffer from MS, Cerebral Palsy and crippling diseases.
Medicaid PDN (Private Duty Nurses) is a little known program that serves 350 of the sickest and frailest people in North Carolina. These patients are paralyzed, have tracheotomies, use ventilators and are fed through tubes. And many are infants and young children.
Please take a moment to look at this video – which tells the story of eleven of these patients.
We will begin airing this video – on the Internet – across North Carolina Monday. And we are sending it to legislators and the press. I thank you for helping make this possible.
Cordially,
Tim Rogers
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Previous Blogs & Articles
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| Penny Wise and Pound Foolish by Tim Rogers | | Normal
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... | | Craigan Gray MD, MBA and JD Again by Carter Wrenn | | Tim Rogers – the Director at the Association of Hospice and Home Care – has taken his life in his hands and tackled Craigan L. Gray, MD, MBA, JD and Director of the Division of Medical Assistance at D... | | TLC by Carter Wrenn | | Craigan Gray, the head of the Division of Medical Assistance at the Department of Health and Human Services, is a well educated man. He signs his official letters Craigan L. Gray – MD, MBA, JD, Direct... | | $450 a Clip by Carter Wrenn | | The gray-suited factotums and Grand Vizier’s over at the DHHS headquarters on the old Dorothea Dix Campus have come up with a new mantra: ‘We’re going to give patients what they need, not what they wa... | | Politics Doesn’t Always Make Sense by Carter Wrenn | |
I thought politics worked like this: We elect people, they pass laws, things happen.
I learned back when Reagan was President a lot less might happen than hoped for – because th... | | Senator Doug Berger - A Strange Explanation by Carter Wrenn | | | Senator Berger’s Bill – To Wipe Felons’ Records Clean by Carter Wrenn | | The other night at his Town Hall Meeting State Senator Doug Berger attacked the Association for Home and Hospice Care, saying we opposed his bill to let felons under 21 years old have their records ‘e... | | New Video – Senator Doug Berger Explains the State Budget on Health Care by Carter Wrenn | | In his Town Hall Meeting in Henderson, State Senator Doug Berger, who heads the Senate Appropriations Committee on Health and Human Services, explained part of the State Budget on health care.
&... | | What’s Happening in State Senator Doug Berger’s District by Carter Wrenn | | Our TV Ads, E-mails, and press releases have created a debate in Senator Doug Berger’s district about his bill to cut home care for 20,000 elderly Medicaid patients.
Here are two examples from... | | New Television Ad - "Covering His Tracks" by Carter Wrenn | | Normal
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... | | Political Antics by Carter Wrenn | | Politicians tend to be hum-drum until one of them lands in hot water then watching their antics can be, well, reminiscent of a trip to the county fair as a child and watching the contortions of the ma... | | Senator Doug Berger's World by Carter Wrenn | | Senator Doug Berger probably never dreamed anyone would run TV ads in his district telling his constituents how he voted to cut 20,000 elderly Medicaid patients’ home care then, eight days later, turn... | | Association for Home & Hospice Care of North Carolina CEO Tim Rogers, sent the following email to all General Assembly Members today. by Carter Wrenn | | 3101 Industrial Drive
Suite 204
Raleigh, North Carolina 27609
Phone: 919.848.3450
Toll Free (NC): 800.999.2357
Cell: 919.961.3555
Email: TimRogers@homeandhospicecare.org
TracyColvard@homeandhos... | | Association for Home & Hospice Care of North Carolina thanks Congressman G.K. Butterfield for expressing concern on the proposed home care cuts. by Carter Wrenn | | Congressman G.K. Butterfield submitted this letter to the editors of several newspapers in his district:
July 8, 2009
Unkind and Unwise Cuts for the Elderly and Disabled
Given these difficu... | | How Politicians Cover-Up Their Mistakes by Carter Wrenn | | Here’s a case study of how politicians cover-up their mistakes.
In April Senator Doug Berger cut home care for 20,000 Medicaid patients – then, 8 days later, voted to spend $25 million to build the T... | | The Association for Home and Hospice Care’s New Video - "A $400,000,000 Mistake" by Carter Wrenn | | Back in February of 2007 Senator Doug Berger wrote his constituents about North Carolina’s home care program: “Most seniors prefer to live in their own homes and receive services rather than be placed... | | New Ad on Home Care by Carter Wrenn | | Today The Association for Home and Hospice Care of North Carolina (AHHC) aired a new Internet video advertisement, here on its website – SaveHomeCareandHospice.com. AHHC is emailing links to... | | Association CEO Tim Rogers writes State Senator Doug Berger by Carter Wrenn | | Email from Association for Home & Hospice Care of North Carolina CEO Tim Rogers, to State Senator Doug Berger questioning Senator Berger's claim that 45% of the Medicaid Home C... | | Senator Berger Responds by Carter Wrenn | | State Senator Doug Berger responds to Association CEO Tim Rogers' email regarding Senator Doug Berger's claim that 45% of the Medicaid Home Care Patients are ineligable.
... | | Tim Rogers' Email to Senator Berger - -"misleading percentages" by Carter Wrenn | | Association for Home & Hospice Care of North Carolina CEO, Tim Rogers' Email to Senator Berger documenting flaws in his review. See Tim's email below:
From: Tim Rogers [mailto:timrog]... | | A Surprise... by Carter Wrenn | | Mid-June 2009: DHHS response to a Public Information request brought another surprise. Over six weeks before the request, DHHS notified Senate Fiscal Research Staffer, M... | | From TalkingAboutPolitics.com by Carter Wrenn | | Senator Doug Berger's Blooper
June 08, 2009
For the past month, State Senator Doug Berger has been telling just about anyone who’ll listen that 45% of the patients who get home care ser... | | Email to Senator Doug Berger from DHHS by Carter Wrenn | | DHHS to Senator Doug Berger: The review does not show that home care patients are ineligable. Because the 'reviews' did not include a physical examination of a single patient. Re... | | E-mail from Tim Rogers to NC Legislators - CCME Percentages Inaccurate per Secretary Cansler by Carter Wrenn | | From: Tim Rogers
Sent: Monday, June 15, 2009
To: NC Legislators
Subject: E-mail from Tim Rogers to Legislators
Dear North Carolina Legislator:
I want to share with you new information I h... | | The NC State House restores part of Berger's cuts...Berger Retaliates! by Carter Wrenn | | The NC State House restores part of Senator Berger's cut. In response, Senator Berger tries to cut the program...again! Read the release below:
For Immediate Release:
June 2... | | From TalkingAboutPolitics.com by Carter Wrenn | | Berger’s Blooper – Chapter II
June 23, 2009
Some people never seem to learn and Democratic Senator Doug Berger is looking like a case in point.
State Senator Berger, who back in his s... | | From TalkingAboutPolitics.com by Carter Wrenn | | Berger’s Blooper – Chapter III
Carter Wrenn posted on June 25, 2009 11:19 pm
Senator Doug Berger’s blooper is going on television.
When Senator Berger passed a bill ... |
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