News Briefs
August 1, 1999 4 minutes read
News Briefs
Public SBA fairness board hearings are scheduled
The Small Business Administration (SBA) will hold two regional fairness board public hearings in August. The first is scheduled for Aug. 4 in Casper, WY; the second on Aug. 19 in Pittsburgh. The hearings give small business owners the opportunity to inform the SBA of the impact of federal government enforcement and compliance regulations on small businesses. The scope of the hearings includes 36 of the 40 federal regulatory agencies, from the Health Care Financing Admini-stration (HCFA) to the Internal Revenue Service and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Commentary guidelines
Small business owners who wish to comment at a hearing should contact the SBA office in the city where the hearing will be held. Those who contact the SBA before the hearing may speak for up to four minutes; those who appear at the hearing without prior notification must limit their comments to two minutes, according to SBA officials. The SBA encourages speakers to bring written transcripts of their comments to facilitate posting of transcripts on the agency’s Web site.
The SBA advocates on behalf of small business for federal agency compliance with the Regulatory Flexibility Act. Since passage of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (BBA), it has received numerous comments from home care providers, and has urged HCFA to revise various aspects of the BBA implementation.
Those interested in commenting at the hearing in Wyoming should call (307) 261-6521; Pittsburgh, (412) 395-6560, extension 104. Transcripts from prior hearings are available on the SBA Web site at www.sba.gov.
NAHC annual conference to be held in San Diego
The National Association for Home Care (NAHC) will hold its annual meeting October 10-13 at the San Diego Convention Center. The theme of this year’s conference is "Demography is Destiny." It will focus on continuing to help agencies cope with Balanced Budget Act of 1997-related issues, while also educating providers about the increasing importance of and opportunities for home care, given the rapidly aging U.S. population and continued trends away from acute care. The conference will feature 19 program tracks, from alternative/complimentary medicine to new business development and telehealth. For more information, contact the NAHC meetings department at (202) 547-5050.
HCFA reinstates OASIS
The Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) has reinstated assessment and transmission requirements for its Outcome and Assessment Information Set (OASIS). Following a test period between mid-July and mid-August, all Medicare-certified home health agencies must begin transmitting encoded data on Aug. 25. This round of OASIS implementation will involve only patients receiving skilled services reimbursed by Medicare and Medicaid. Transmission of data for skilled patients with other reimbursement sources will be delayed until spring 2000.
HFCA delayed the collection, encoding, and transmission of OASIS data on patients receiving personal care services only until at least spring 2000.
The latest implementation requirements come after the agency faced a firestorm of controversy over patient privacy concerns and its initial direction that providers must discharge any patient — regardless of their payer source — who refused to participate in the OASIS assessment. HCFA also had to take actions to make the OASIS implementation comply with the Paperwork Reduction Act.
In response to criticism of the initial OASIS requirements, HCFA has clarified that patients have the right not to respond to the assessment. As mandated by the Privacy Act of 1974, patients will receive a statement of patient privacy rights that informs them of the purpose of OASIS and the conditions under which HCFA may release OASIS data to other federal agencies.
HCFA has also removed a question about patients’ financial circumstances that many considered sensitive.
The agency continues to work on a masking system that by next spring will conceal all unique identifying information, like names and social security numbers for patients with nongovernmental payment sources.
The changes postpone, but do not relieve, the OASIS implementation burden for Medicare-certified private duty providers who operate private duty and Medicare services out of the same entity. Especially those with small Medicare caseloads face added costs across all patients on slim-margined operations radically different from those that strictly involve Medicare.
LifeStyle Options acquires a private duty company
LifeStyle Options, a personal care company in Schaumburg, IL, recently acquired Apple At Your Service, the private duty division of Downers Grove, IL-based Apple Home Health Inc. In announcing the sale, Molly Miceli, president and chief executive officer of LifeStyle Options, said, "We’re thrilled about the purchase of Apple At Your Service. It will allow us to provide more service to more clients in a larger area and will ultimately create new jobs."
Apple Home Health president Steve Frank indicated that an increased interest in Medicare and licensed services lead to the decision to sell Apple At Your Service. "When we decided to sell the private duty segment of our business, we approached LifeStyle Options first. We’d known and admired their professionalism for a long time and hoped they would be interested in building on the private duty business we started," he said.
Apple At Your Service employs 125 caregivers and services over 200 clients in the southern and southwestern suburbs of Chicago. Through contractual agreements, Apple also provides on-site care at several retirement communities in the greater Chicago metropolitan area.
LifeStyle Options employs 400 caregivers and provides care to nearly 1,000 clients mostly in Chicago and its west, northwest, and northern suburbs. The company also operates in Phoenix, Portland, OR, and St. Ann, MO.
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