The Last Month Has Been Rather Hectic. Just As the Winter Snow Has Affected Your Operations

CEO Report – March 2014

The last month has been rather hectic. Just as the winter snow has affected your operations, so it has for HCANH. Over President’s Day weekend, a water pipe burst in the ceiling over the front foyer, causing water to cascade through walls and into the basement. This -- along with the transition to a new office manager, revising our distance ed curriculum due to the cancellation of the COS-C series, hosting a membership meeting, and staying on top of State House activity -- has kept us rather busy.

ADMINISTRATION

Here is the status of the building: there was no damage to the tenant space on the 2nd floor, major damage to the front foyer, some limited water damage in the HCANH conference room and bathroom, and 5 inches of the water in the basement. Basement damage included water damage to 8 bankers’ boxes of documents – luckily all of them were beyond our document retention policy, and two window air conditioners that were on the floor. I’m relieved that this was the extent of the damage – we determined the pipe broke late on President’s Day. If it had happened earlier in the weekend, the damage would have been much worse.

The major source of the problem is that water pipes to the upstairs space are actually all on an exterior wall and surround the front door. The one baseboard in the foyer was not producing sufficient heat, because the heating zones in the building have been subdivided to the point of inefficiency. After stabilizing water and electrical services, and having ServPro perform demolition and water mitigation, I interviewed three contractors, checked references and selected Boddie Construction from Epsom. Their estimate of work was approved by the insurance adjustor assigned to our case. Work began last week and is nearly complete. As part of the repairs, water pipes have been rerouted to inside walls and replaced with flexible, expandable tubing that resists bursting. The all-glass front door will be replaced with an energy-efficient and secure fiberglass door. All of this should be covered by our insurance.

In an effort to prevent future problems, we are having some improvements made to the heating system. The cost is about $1800, well within our capital budget of $5,000. I am also looking into replacing the 2 other doors on the first floor. Our back door on Blake Street is so old that you can see daylight through it.

The transition to a new office manager is moving forward. Despite a lost week due to a medical emergency, Lori is figuring things out. Closing the first month has been the biggest challenge. While we have an office procedure manual and an accounting manual, Chloe had her way of doing things, and not all instructions were documented. As expected, this has required more of my involvement than in the past.

The Finance Committee met last week with Hession & Pare, our auditors. We had a clean audit for 2014 and are in very good financial shape. As part of the annual audit retainer, the auditors are willing to provide assistance to Lori when she has questions. This should be helpful in assuring that our bookkeeping remains in good shape going forward.

In this current fiscal year, we are behind budget for the month of February. This was anticipated, largely because of the cancellation of the COS-C series. A few other things that set us back: a few large dues payments that were expected did not arrive in February. They will be booked in March. Our tenant’s rent check bounced and was not redeposited until March 2. I hope we will be back on track within the next month or two.

MEMBERSHIP

All 2014 members have renewed membership, with the exception of one small agency that has not completed its paperwork/dues payment. We also have had 5 new affiliate members join the Association in the since January – Mutual of America, ChartaCloud, Core Medical, and Qualidigm, and I-Care Pharmacy and we are expecting applications from MedLine.

The March 8 membership meeting with the two MCOs was well attended. There was a small group for CQI Forum. The Rehab Therapy Meeting was cancelled due to weather and low RSVP rate. We need to do a better job getting meeting notices and agendas out in advance. We also have been experiencing problems with our listserv, so we are not confident that our emails have been received. Our goal this month is to clean those up.

Education

We finalized plans for a webinar entitled ADR to ALJ: Tips and Tactics for Successful Medicare Appeals. The presenters are own members: Maureen Hanlon and Anne Bergin. This will air on April 7. Several states have already agreed to market this. We have also reworked the COS-C series with Joan Usher into a 4-part OASIS Proficiency for Therapist, which will start on April 15. We are applying for PT CEUs through the NH Chapter of APTA. There has also been very good enrollment in out-of-state distance ed programs.

There is a Membership Meeting on April 8th. Since this will be after the NAHC March on Washington, we will do a Washington Update and have a presentation from MinuteMan Health.

The full-day Clear Path Project training is March 31 at Plymouth State College Graduate School in Concord.

GSHHA

Federal Relations

I will be in DC on March 22 – 24 as part of the NAHC Meeting. We have Hill visits scheduled with our delegation. Sandra Poleatewich, Elaine Bussey, Beth Slepian and possibly Margaret Franckhauser. They are flying in just for these visits.

I continue to work on F2F advocacy. I have kept the Board informed on Sen. Ayotte’s interaction with CMS, and shared the letter that I received from CMS. The results are disappointing. At this point, I feel the only way to resolve F2F problems is through legislation or NAHC’s lawsuit.

There is an NGS Provider Outreach and Education call on Friday, March 13th, during which I anticipate received state-specific data on F2F denials. NGS has cancelled all webinars related to home health certification. That leaves interpretation in our hands. During our Board Meeting, we will discuss a sample addendum that is being tested by Partners. I would like your feedback on this model.

State Relations

On the legislative front, we agreed to an amendment to HB 484, the LNA med bill. This was done to move the bill from the House, giving us time to work on it with other stakeholders before the Senate hearing. We’ll discuss more during the Board Meeting.

I testified at the State Budget Public Hearing on March 3. This is mostly a perfunctory process – if you’re not there, legislators notice. Testifiers are allowed 2 minutes, so there’s no time for substance and detail. I’ve added my testimony to the Board Room on the web.

A funding issue emerged last week. It relates to $5.1 million in “surplus” CFI funds that DHHS wants to use to fill a budget shortfall. I will describe this in more detail during the Board Meeting – it’s rather complicated. Any unspent funds are supposed to be used to increase rates. Sen. Jeannie Forester has introduced SB 8 to prevent DHHS from taking the funds. If SB 8 passes, there will be a bump in CFI rates between now and June 30th. However the Governor’s budget is based on this unexpectedly low CFI spending in FY 2014, so the proposed budget for CFI is low for ’16 and ’17 budget.

On a different note, as a follow-up to our March 8 Membership Meeting, Well Sense asked HCANH to coordinate a “focus group” of agencies to meet with their team to discuss Step 2. That meeting occurred on March 9 and included Sandra Poleatewich, Rebecca Hutchinson, Heidi Roberts-Morrison, Debra Simmons and Karen Royer. We’ll discuss more during our Board Meeting.