Recent News

TAHC&H Members host PAC Mixer in San Antonio!

By Avery Thomas posted Jun 11,2018
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We would like to thank Kristen Robison and Pam Goble for taking the initiative to plan and host our first member hosted PAC Fundraiser. The event was on Thursday, June 7th and raised money for both the PAC and the Home Care Defense Fund. Here's what Kristen had to say about the event: "Our first ever TAHCH PAC mixer was a huge success! Myself and Pam Goble hosted the event at Costa Pacifica in San Antonio. We had close to 40 people attend! Those who came enjoyed a nice spread of ceviche, nachos and other great appetizers, as well as happy hour at the bar. We saw lots of familiar faces and met many new people as well. Everyone mingled and had a blast! At the ...
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Recap: Emergency Preparedness Summit

By Katie Mills posted May 24,2018
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Agencies are getting prepared – hurricane season is upon us! The Emergency Preparedness Summit took place on Tuesday at the J.J. Pickle Research Campus in Austin, Texas. Over 130 attendees heard from industry experts on all-things disaster preparedness related.   The first half of the day was filled with a detailed regulatory guidance class including how to apply the state and federal emergency preparedness rules and what surveyors are looking for.  After lunch, attendees welcomed a panel of community partners representing various regional advisory councils as well as the Texas Hospital Preparedness Program State Coordinator for Health Emergency Preparedness ...
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TAHC&H PAC's Dash for CASH

By Avery Thomas posted May 17,2018
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Get ready for TAHC&H PAC's Dash for Cash next week! This two day online fundraiser will be held May 22-23 to raise money for our nonpartisan state and federal Political Action Committee. TAHC&H PAC supports lawmakers on the campaign trail who believe that Texans should have access to quality home care & hospice services! Learn more about the PAC and donate to our cause next week! We appreciate your support! Why Give? A gift to the PAC is an investment in your industry! As association dues cannot go to the PAC, we rely on personal participation from home care professionals like you! Without your support, we can not create the change ...
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Gulf of Mexico Hurricane Season June 1 to November 30 - TAHC&H Wants ALL 6,262 HCSSAs in Texas to be prepared!

By Marissa Machado posted May 08,2018
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This week is National Hurricane Preparedness Week , and Hurricane season officially begins June 1 through November . TAHC&H wants all 6,262 licensed Home and Community Support Service Agencies (HCSSAs) in Texas to be prepared!   According to the most recent Regulatory Services Annual Report for FY 2017 , Texas has 6,262, HCSSAs that provide services to hundreds of thousands consumers each year. The report cites that HCSSAs census counts for 2016 and 2017 totaled 1,245,985 consumers served. Due to the sheer number of consumers served, and not including the staff counts, HCSSAs have an enormous responsibility when it comes being prepared ...
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Spring meetings bring fresh ideas!

By Katie Mills posted Apr 30,2018
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TAHC&H just wrapped up another successful committee, Board of Directors and educational workshops at the Doubletree Hotel in Austin last week. TAHC&H members gathered April 24-25 to collaborate and discuss policy, best practices, future conferences and continue to steer the association as the voice for home care & hospice in Texas.  On Thursday, April 26 – over 200 attendees gathered to attend the Private Pay and CoPs workshops. Highlights of the Private Pay sessions included a highly informative session from both the state and federal levels on wage & hour law. Attendees were able to ask questions to Tommy Simmons from the Texas Workforce Commission ...
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CMS Webpage Update - Protecting Medicare and Medicaid: Report Fraud, Waste, and Abuse

By Marissa Machado posted Apr 30,2018
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The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Center for Program Integrity (CPI) works with providers, states, and other partners to protect the Medicare and Medicaid programs from fraud, waste, and abuse. CPI recently launched  new webpages  to inform consumers and providers about our efforts to protect patients, while also minimizing unnecessary burden on providers. Take time to visit and see  CPI’s priorities in 2018 focus on investing in data and analytics to support fraud detection and prevention efforts, reducing burdensome documentation requirements for providers, and improving communication and collaboration with all our partners. Visit the  ...
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April 9th, 10:30 AM, STAR Kids MCO/Member/Provider Stakeholder Workgroup - Meeting Reminder and Agenda

By JR Top posted Apr 05,2018
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The telephonic STAR Kids MCO/Member/Provider Stakeholder Workgroup meeting being will be held on April 9 at 10:30 AM. A copy of the agenda is available at the following link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/d3yp630f29ou0ob/20180409%20STAR%20Kids%20Workgroup%20agenda.docx?dl=0 Call Information: 877.820.7831 Access Code: 590037 Agenda: 1. HHSC Updates     Topic Lead Today’s Discussion   1.       Member Portal update MCCO     2.       FMSA/MCO meetings TAHP     3.       Eligibility  PES     4.       ...
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TAHC&H Goes to Washington!

By Avery Thomas posted Apr 05,2018
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March on Washington is an annual TAHC&H event and serves as an opportunity to advocate for home care & hospice policy priorities at the federal level in Washington, D.C. Our members, from across Texas, met face to face with federal Representatives about home care & hospice issues. This year the event took place March 19-21st, 2018.   Additionally, a virtual lobby day was organized for those who could not attend in person.   See how TAHC&H works for our industry with this MOW recap!   Check out TAHC&H's 2018 Home Care Priorites   and 2018 Hospice Priorites . March on Washington 2018 A snow covered Washington ...
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Update: April Committee & Board/CoPs Workshop/Private Pay

By Katie Mills posted Mar 29,2018
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Important Hotel Update for April Committees/Conferences: We just received word that the Doubletree Austin Hotel is filling up fast for the upcoming Committee & Board Meeting, CoPs Intensive Workshop and Private Pay Conference, April 24-26. Due to demand, the hotel will not be able to extend the deadline to make reservations so reserve your room today ! Cut off date: Saturday, April 7, 2018.  Doubletree by Hilton Hotel Austin 6505 N Interstate 35 Austin, TX 78752 Group Rate: $159 Cut Off: April 7, 2018 (512) 454-3737 Reserve Online Haven't registered to attend the conferences? These sessions will provide critical ...
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Nationally known speaker scheduled for next month’s Private Pay Conference

By Giovanna Cooke, RN posted Mar 23,2018
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 Don’t miss out on this great opportunity to get information that will help your Private Pay agency in so many ways! We’ll kick off the day with a session on Wage & Hour Law for Private Pay with Tommy Simmons, Legal Counsel for the Commissioner representing employers at the Texas Workforce Commission. As an added bonus, Nicole Sellers, District Director of the Austin Office of the US Dept. of Labor, will be participating in the Q&A portion of this session. Shelle Womble, award-winning Sales Champion with corecubed Aging Care Marketing, will present two lively and dynamic sessions on sales and marketing to help you attract clients and take your ...
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Free HIPAA training offered by the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights

By Giovanna Cooke, RN posted Mar 20,2018
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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights presents Free HIPAA Training for Small Providers This introductory training will cover the Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Rules, including: Rights of individuals Administrative requirements Safeguards Minimum necessary Business associate agreements Enforcement updates Risk analysis Risk management This same training will be offered four times at the following locations (click on a link below to RSVP - space is limited!):  Dallas :       Tuesday, May 8, 2018 from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm; Kilgore :     Wednesday, May 9, 2018 from 8:30 ...
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Mark Your Calendars for our Federal Virtual Lobby Day!

By Avery Thomas posted Mar 15,2018
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As part of our annual March on Washington next week, home care advocates from across Texas will be on Capitol Hill visiting with Members of Congress to promote home care as the solution for health care. TAHC&H is hosting a Virtual Lobby Day for all who cannot be in Washington, D.C. next week so mark your calendars for Tuesday, March 20th ! We will be educating legislative offices about Home Care and Hospice services and our  2018 Home Health Priorities and 2018 Hospice Priorities . We will be asking you to contact your federal legislators in support of the issues below: Support Home Health and patients choice to be in the lowest health care cost ...
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Private Pay Agencies – This one’s for you!

By Katie Mills posted Mar 08,2018
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Registration opened this week for TAHC&H’s full-day Private Pay only conference. Join us April 26, 2018 at the Doubletree Hotel in Austin for a wide range of topics targeted specifically to private pay agencies. The theme for this year’s event is THINK BIG and the sessions will help you do just that! Shelle Womble a Sales Champion at nationally known, corecubed Aging Care Marketing will present two sessions – one geared towards fine tuning your sales personality and improving top-line results as well as how to effectively use sales, marketing and public relations in your agency. Other topics include the ever-popular, Tommy Simmons from the Texas ...
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Winter Conference Wrap Up: Highlight Video!

By Katie Mills posted Mar 02,2018
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Last week over 300 attendees and vendors gathered at the brand new Embassy Suites Brooks Hotel in San Antonio for 2 full days of educational sessions. The event was kicked off on Tuesday evening with attendees gathering for happy hour drinks, hors d’oeuvres, door prizes and networking. Wednesday featured a full day of leadership training by nationally known speakers from Simione Healthcare Consultants. Their sessions presented thought provoking insight into the best practices for a running a business, managing employees, fine tuning your digital marketing strategies and some outside the box thinking for ways to increase your agency’s value using mergers ...
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TAHC&H Education - CoPs Intensive Workshop – Did You Miss It?

By Marissa Machado posted Feb 09,2018
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Were you part of the 242?  The first of three CoPs Intensive Workshops took place last week in Plano, Texas with a fabulous attendance of over 240! The full day session, presented by Axxess’ Jennifer Gibson, RN, HCS-D, COS-C, was informative, interactive and overall a great success. We also had multiple vendors on hand to share their products and services with attendees and offer additional solutions for agencies adjusting to the new rules. What did we hear from attendees? In addition to the positive feedback about their learning experience, attendees opined the value of a presenter who spent time engaging the audience up to the very end of the conference. ...
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Medicare: Policy Veers Toward Expansion of Telehealth

By Marissa Machado posted Jan 18,2018
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A recent decision by the  Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) and moves by the Administration and leaders in Congress point to a future expansion in the use of telehealth, an important development for the home care community. Telehealth is the expansion of health care and education using telecommunication technologies to deliver virtual medical and education services. Last week, MedPAC voted unanimously to expand telehealth reimbursement for Medicare in a  report  required by the 21 st  Century Cures Act. The many advocates for telehealth or telemedicine believe it has the potential to increase the quality of care, while enhancing convenience, ...
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CDC Health and Safety – PPE and Filtering Facepiece Respirators: To Reuse or Not to Reuse?

By Marissa Machado posted Jan 18,2018
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Results from a recent study supports the recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for the proper removal of filtering facepiece respirators. In addition, they highlight the importance of discarding used filtering facepiece respirators after direct contamination by a cough or a sneeze. The study appeared in the  Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene . Improper donning and doffing combined with reuse resulted in more viruses transferred to the hands during scenarios simulating the use of filtering facepiece respirator. The importance of covering a cough or a sneeze to prevent spreading germs to those around us, ...
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Federal -IRS, States and Tax Industry Warn Employers to Beware of New Surge in Phishing Scheme

By Marissa Machado posted Jan 18,2018
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WASHINGTON – The Internal Revenue Service, state tax agencies and the tax industry today urged all employers to educate their payroll personnel about a Form W-2 phishing scam that made victims of hundreds of organizations and thousands of employees last year.  The Form W-2 scam has emerged as one of the most dangerous phishing emails in the tax community. During the last two tax seasons, cybercriminals tricked payroll personnel or people with access to payroll information into disclosing sensitive information for entire workforces. The scam affected all types of employers, from small and large businesses to public schools and universities, hospitals, tribal ...
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Innovation is key - Learn how at Winter Conference!

By Katie Mills posted Jan 17,2018
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“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” – Steve Jobs Winter Conference: Innovation is a State of Mind  |  February 21-22, 2018 In today’s healthcare world, innovation is not only key, it’s vital. Whether you are the owner/top executive of your agency or you are a clinician, we all have a hand in the success of the agency. Simione Healthcare Consultants is an industry leader in helping agencies improve their business performance and brings a full day of leadership training to next month’s Winter Conference. You won’t want to miss it! Topics include: Strategies for leading staff and resources for managing clinical and financial ...
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When Was the Last Time You Sent Your Staff to RCTCLearnNet?

By Becky Campbell, CMP posted Jan 08,2018
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RCTCLEARN.NET launched a NEW and IMPROVED site for hosting online home care and hospice courses in 2017.  The site provides easy access to over 100 online home care and hospice courses you and your staff can take today for continuing education and/or orientation needs.    As a TAHC&H Member, all you have to do to obtain access to the updated site, is to simply request a list of tokens from TAHC&H.  Once you receive the list of tokens, provide one to each of your staff along with the Student Guide. The Student Guide provides a step by step approach to creating an account where users will be instructed to create their own UNIQUE username and ...
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