Home care agencies and home care networks have faced ongoing operational challenges due to a variety of reasons. Rapidly fluctuating regulatory requirements related to the home care industry have been almost constant over the past several years now.
Patients and their family caregivers are much more likely to be more active in their healthcare planning needs and desires. More aging adults prefer to age-in-place at home rather than enter costly and unfamiliar hospital or other care settings.
Home care businesses are moving towards value-based care that is driven by the patients and their care experience results. There are some practical strategies to assist home care agencies and networks adapt to these ever-evolving care regulations.
Appoint Someone As the Designated Regulation Owner
The management team at any home care agency have enough on their plates trying to keep up with all of the new changes in care. It is difficult to find the necessary time to read up on all of the ever-changing rules and regulations.
Every home health agency should be wise and appoint someone else as the company’s designated regulation owner. This will leave the rest of the company’s managers to stay focused on their own goals without leaving the task of researching, planning and otherwise overseeing the process of staying compliant with the new rules left undone.
Effectively Communicate All Home Care Regulation Changes Across All Departments
When first starting a business, or seeing the company through the current revolving healthcare trends, most business leaders will state that good communication throughout the entire researching, planning and implementing stages is vital for overall success. 
There are many parts of a healthcare organization that need to be kept informed of all current and pending changes that cause home care companies to adapt. Departments include human resources/scheduling departments, certified health care employees and direct caregivers and supportive staff members.
All brand new and upcoming policy changes should be shared across the multifaceted company departments to ensure awareness of the changes and understanding of the specific details.
Hold regular staff meetings to explain the new policy regulations. Allow informative and interactive employee question and answer sessions and encourage employee input suggestions to promote better company compliance.
Seek & Work with Experienced Vendors Who Already Know the Industry
These evolving home health care rules and state regulations can be expensive for smaller companies to implement. Costs are a common factor for many healthcare groups.
As a result, there continue to be strategic business mergers and partnerships or consolidations from insurance companies to healthcare providers themselves.
Changes in Medicare and Medicaid approved payment plans for many healthcare related services has only increased the need for home care agencies and other healthcare businesses to think smart when it comes to choosing the right vendors to help reduce expected company costs.
Healthcare agencies that work with already seasoned vendors who will know the industry better increase their chances for higher care cost savings, more business related expense reductions and other saved money and benefits that can be passed along to the patients.
Working with vendors familiar with the industry’s complex details and costs can be a cost-saving triple-win for service providers, vendors and their valued patients.
What Are the Current Healthcare Trends? How Will They Impact a Home Health Agency?
Current healthcare trends are seeing more of a shift towards personal service and functional health plan modes of operation. Since so many of the Baby Boomer generation is currently receiving or will soon need some type of regular care, the current shortage of registered nurses able to provide skilled nursing care is expected to rise even higher.
Most industry leaders believe that more emphasis will be placed on reduced cost ways to manage the care of a population group without the corresponding healthcare team members to provide that care in a hospital or long-term nursing care setting.
Likely Changes Home Care Companies Will Soon See
Since teleport healthcare services will become part of the solution for this overwhelming amount of aging patients without enough medical resources, more chronically ill people will most likely be cared for in a home setting.
This means that home care agencies across the country will need to radically shift their current healthcare policies to take on these sicker patients. The result will require home health management leaders to add more skilled nursing care and more advanced certified health care services as part of the changes home care companies will need to implement to stay competitive in this business.
It is now predicted that more home care agencies will need to hire many more registered nurses that will likely need a B.S. degree to effectively manage these chronically ill patients out of a hospital based setting.
More seniors are looking for alternative care options like holistic-focused functional health plan choices.
Why Are Care Regulations and Standard of Care Policies Still Important?
In many ways, home health agencies will likely change the most out of all the types and levels of skilled nursing care including the current practice of employing more caregivers that work under a lower number of higher trained registered nurses.
Managing teams should use current and pending interpretive guidelines for further clarification and defining explanations for already-in-place standards of care rules, regulations and requirements involving healthcare services.
These interpretive guidelines do not actually add or impose new relevant healthcare-related statutes or requirements.
What Is Behind Current Healthcare Policy Shifts?
All healthcare institutions and businesses must now adapt to these changes in their current healthcare policy guidelines to stay profitable.
While psychiatrist groups, specialty physicians and supportive healthcare providers have jumped on the current healthcare teleport train, home care providers face a different set of challenges.
These companies will need to invest in higher-cost specialized equipment and higher-paid employees to successfully be able to compete in this higher stakes healthcare shakeup.
Why Patient Personal Care Experience Is Driving New Healthcare Trends?
There is a major shift in healthcare towards more value-based care. The success of these new care services depends on accurately getting helpful patient feedback on how they rate their personal care experiences.
Review specifics including personal service comments and suggestions that can help healthcare companies refine their care services to meet the professional standards of care goals and judge how employees are meeting company-specific standards of care and practice policies.
Taking these valuable suggestions, patient comments and statistical care data and using them to improve ongoing patient-focused and value-based care services can positively improve your company’s reputation, draw more patients and increase patient care and employee satisfaction levels.
Ways Management Can Stay Compliant with Evolving Rules and Regulations
New to the healthcare field owners just starting a business and seasoned healthcare companies alike can help their employees stay compliant with evolving regulatory rules related to care practices by employing smart managing processes.
The proper business strategy tools, due diligence of pending healthcare trends and strategic delegation of duties can keep everyone on track.
Top home care companies realize that it might initially cost the company more money to implement and maintain the care changes in order to comply with newer home care rules and regulations.
Despite it all, most healthcare providers are determined to maintain their high level of care and commitment to their patients in their promise to deliver topnotch and affordable nursing care.
