Subject:
FAHSA LINK
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| July 3,
2008 |
Vol 15, Issue
29 | |
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FAHSA
LINK | |
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| Welcome to this
week's edition of the FAHSA Link.
Happy 4th
of July!
FAHSA's Innovation Exchange Corner
Features Arts in Health Care -- FAHSA's
Innovation Exchange Program provides members with
an opportunity to share ideas and best practices
with others and to recognize their staff for
extraordinary performance. Through the LINK, we
hope to encourage more members to share what they
do best and to increase awareness about the
Innovation Exchange Web site, an important but
little known resource. This month, we are
showcasing "Arts in Health Care", a program
designed by Advent Christian Village. For the past
20 years, Advent Christian Village has organized
Artist Series Events for their community.
Music, art, and drama have been scheduled to
enhance the quality of life for their
residents. Dick Grillo, who has been
employed with Advent for more than 25 years,
developed the series, as well as numerous other
art and musical programs, said the
following: "Dealing compassionately and
lovingly with the whole person, body, mind and
spirit calls for all the resources made available
to us. The performing arts are part of the
resources that we see as having potential for
helping us see the world more clearly. The
arts help residents to live fuller lives as
individuals and members of the community. The arts
are also one of the best forms of achieving
genuine exchanges between members of different
cultural communities." To read more about
this innovative program, please visit the FAHSA Innovation
Exchange page on the FAHSA Web site and
click on "Arts in Health Care"
program.
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| Education
News |
Blue
Oceans Strategy Opening Keynote Presentation
Becoming More Popular - In addition to
being presented during FAHSA's convention, Blue
Ocean Strategy is becoming more popular with other
organizations as well. Many organizations are
turning to Blue Oceans as their future business
strategy.
For decades, companies
have engaged in head-to-head competition in search
of sustained, profitable growth-fighting for
competitive advantage, battling over market share,
and struggling for differentiation. Yet these
hallmarks of competitive strategy are not the way
to create profitable growth in the future.
According to extensive research by Professor
Mauborgne, cutthroat competition results in
nothing but a bloody red ocean of rivals fighting
over a shrinking pool of profit. Rather, she
argues that lasting success comes not from
battling competitors, but from creating "blue
oceans," untapped new market spaces ripe for
growth. This session provides a systematic
approach to making competition irrelevant and a
framework for successfully creating and capturing
blue oceans. Make plans now to join
us for this popular session by clicking on the
convention link below.
Five Education Scholarships
Available for Convention from the Scott Boord
Career Development Scholarship -- The
Scott Boord Career Development Scholarship enables
FAHSA members to send eligible staff to FAHSA or
AAHSA educational conventions, workshops and
seminars. The maximum amount of funding
available per applicant is $500.00. The funds can
be used to cover registration fees, travel, or
other conference-related expenses. The
selected recipients receive credit on the FAHSA
registration or reimbursement of expenses by
submitting an expense form with the attached
receipts.
The scholarship is funded
by the Silent Auction held each year in
conjunction with FAHSA's Annual Convention and
Exposition and FAHSA's Annual Housing &
Service Coordinator Workshops.
For
more information, or to apply for a scholarship,
please click here.
Upcoming
Educational Events:
FAHSA Calendar of
Events |
| General
News |
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Florida Senior Care Meeting
Scheduled -- The Agency for Health Care
Administration, in conjunction with the Department
of Elder Affairs, announces a meeting to discuss
the Florida Senior Care Program. The meeting
will provide an overview of the program as well as
an opportunity for public comment. Download
a copy of the meeting agenda by clicking HERE. For more information, contact
Stephanie L. Clarke, 2727 Mahan Drive, Mail Stop
20, Tallahassee, FL 32308, (850) 487-2618.
The meeting will be held in the following
location:
Thursday, July 10, 2008
10:30
A.M.- 12 Noon (Eastern)
PLACE:
Brevard County Agricultural
University of Florida-Brevard County
Extension
3695 Lake Drive
Cocoa, FL
32926
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| Home and
Community-Based Services
News |
Important Changes in Final Hospice
Conditions of Participation (CoPs) --
Various new changes have been developed as a
result of CMS's final hospice CoPs that were
published in early June. In addition to the
requirement of a Quality Assessment and
Performance Improvement (QAPI) component, the
following five changes are especially important:
the initial assessment must be completed within 48
hours (instead of the previous 24 hours), the
comprehensive assessment must be completed within
five days (new requirement), the plan of care must
be revised after 15 days (always been standard,
but now required), a pharmacist must be contracted
or hired (or a person with drug-management
training), and social workers must have a master's
degree (others with bachelor degrees can still be
employed, but must be supervised by an MSW, and
all new social work hires must have an MSW). The
rule becomes effective December 2.
Source: AAHSA,
Contact: Evvie
Munley, (202) 508-9478. To read the
final rule on hospice regulations, please visit
the CMS
website. Consumer
Health Care Web site Adds Medicaid
Information -- Florida's consumer health
care site, FloridaHealthFinder.gov, has added
information on Medicaid services and expenditures
for hospitals, nursing homes, home health
agencies, hospice, and physicians. It also
provides general information on Medicaid and
Medicare and tips on finding Medicaid doctors,
dentists, and specialists. To check out the
updated site, please visit the Florida Consumer
Health Care Web
site. New
Palliative Care Ethical Guideline
Released -- Palliative care workers are
allowed to sedate some patients with intractable
pain at the end of life--but only as a last-resort
measure, according to a new ethical guideline
approved by the American Medical Association at
its most recent annual meeting. Critics of
palliative or terminal sedation argue that the
practice is a thinly veiled form of
physician-assisted suicide, though a report by the
Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs finds the
sedation does not necessarily hasten death.
Between 5% and 30% of end-of-life patients
experience a form of intractable pain, according
to the Annals of Internal Medicine. The
new ethical guideline does not permit physicians
to use the sedation treatment to allay a patient's
emotional stress, instead calling for social and
spiritual guidance in those instances. The
guideline also does not permit doctors to use
palliative sedation as a means by which to end a
life. Rather, the goal is to give guidance to
hospitals and care facilities that may be
reluctant to allow the practice, and to provide
protection for the palliative team involved.
More information is available at www.ama-assn.org.
Source: Courtesy of McKnight's
Long Term Care News and Assisted
Living. |
| Housing
News |
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"Non-Profit Capacity" Will Be Studied
by AHSC - Yesterday, the Affordable
Housing Study Commission (AHSC) held their first
yearly meeting in Tallahassee to introduce the new
members of the Commission, discuss legislative
issues and to choose the new topic for the
Commission to study this next year. The
topic, "Non Profit Capacity" was chosen from a
list of about ten other important and relevant
topics. Steve Auger, Executive Director of
Florida Housing Finance Corporation (FHFC),
presented the Commission with a list of topics,
but recommended that the Commission choose a topic
that was broad-based, and one that would make a
positive impact. The Commission voted
unanimously to study "Non-Profit Capacity" in
hopes of improving the ability of nonprofits to
develop single and multifamily housing; to help
nonprofits create supportive housing options; and
to provide staff of communities with technical
training assistance. FAHSA looks forward to
working with the Commission on this topic.
The Affordable Housing Study
Commission was created in 1986 pursuant to the
provisions of Section 420.609, Florida Statutes.
Each year the Commission makes public policy
recommendations to the Governor and Legislature to
stimulate community development and revitalization
to promote the production, preservation, and
maintenance of safe, decent affordable housing for
all Floridians. Each year, the Commission
chooses an affordable housing-related topic and
prepares a report to the Governor and Legislature,
due by July 15th, as a means of fulfilling its
mission. In developing the report, the Commission
considers research prepared by members and staff,
public testimony and input from affordable housing
advocates, experts and
organizations.
Nancy Muller, FHFC's
Policy Director, will provide more information
about this topic and their preservation plans
during her presentation on Wednesday, July 30
during FAHSA's 45th Annual Convention.
Please make plans to attend this important
session.
Important Reminder
For all EIV Users -- Don't forget to tune
in to the two-day EIV instructional course on July
8 and July 9, 2008 from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
(EST). To join the webcast, click on the HUD
webcasts Web site at: http://www.hud.gov/webcasts/index.cfm.
Owners and management agents (O/As),
contract administrators and HUD staff is invited
to attend the course. The course will be
delivered by HUD Headquarters staff and will
provide information on gaining and retaining EIV
access, security of EIV data, using EIV
information and reports and monitoring compliance
of O/As using the EIV system. The revised
agenda for the scheduled course is
attached.
Prior to the course, the
course materials, including PowerPoint
presentations and case studies, will be posted to
the EIV Training and Outreach for
Multifamily Housing Programs web page at
http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/mfh/rhiip/eiv/eivtraining.cfm for review and
downloading. Questions concerning the
instructional course should be directed to Kevin
Garner, Housing Program Manager, who can be
reached by telephone at (202) 402-2057 or by email
at Kevin.X.Garner@hud.gov.
Other Housing
News:
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| Legislative
News |
| Gun Bill Takes Effect this
Week -- Effective July 1, Florida
employers and business owners may not bar workers
and customers from bringing guns onto their
property and leaving the weapons locked inside or
attached to their vehicles. FAHSA members were
sent a technical assistance bulletin on June 23 to
help them with compliance. If you did not receive
the bulletin, which in includes a sample policy,
please check FAHSA's Legislative page on the
members only Web site to download a copy.
The new law, signed into law by
Gov. Charlie Crist in April, is being contested by
the Florida Chamber of Commerce. The organization,
which filed a lawsuit and asked for a temporary
injunction to stop the law from going into effect,
contends that businesses should have the right to
prohibit guns on this property. The National Rifle
Association and other gun-rights advocates counter
that business rights don't trump the right to bear
arms. The Chamber is expecting the judge to rule
later this month. Meanwhile, employers and
business owners must comply with the law.
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court
affirmed an individual right to bear arms in a
5-to-4 decision. |
| Nursing
Home News |
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EDS Claim Submission
Problems -- FAHSA has received the
following information from EDS:
- Due to the volume of activity this week,
there may be a delay in seeing claims submitted
on the secure Web Portal. Claims may take
as long as 10-12 hours to view after being
submitted. If providers are finding that
they still don't appear.
- EDS is currently addressing phone access
problems that are affecting both providers and
recipients. EDS regrets this inconvenience and
is working aggressively to increase phone
capacity. These changes will take several days
to implement. In the interim, EDS is adding
hours to support call-back activities and
extending support activities into the weekend.
EDS expects the forthcoming changes to
significantly improve the current problems.
- Also, the cutoff for submitting
claims to make the weekend financial cycle will
be extended to Friday, July 4 at
12:00pm. Please note that with the high
volume of claims being submitted, claims
uploaded on the secure Web Portal may take 10-12
hours to process before being available via the
Claim Search Option. Thank you
for patience with these matters.
- EDS had some plans experience processing
errors (essentially the system times-out and
does not complete the upload process) when
attempting to submit the claim batches.
EDS has made some adjustments to processing
servers and expect that problem to decrease in
volume. When this occurs, please re-try
submitting the batch at a later time (1-2 hours
later).
As we have advised you in our earlier
communications, these problems are not unexpected
during a fiscal agent turnover. We have been
in communication with Medicaid and asked for
additional phone lines (over and above what
already has been added to handle the extra volume
of calls.)
Other Nursing Home
News:
- Durable Medical Equipment, Prosthetics,
Orthotics and Supplies Implementation and
Monitoring
- Medicare Therapy Issue Update from AAHSA
- Beware of Scam to Obtain Social Security
Numbers
- Florida NHA Licenses to Expire
- What to do When Patients Reach Their Limit
on Outpatient Therapy Services
- Updated Medicaid Handbooks Available for
Durable Medical Equipment and Therapy
Services
FAHSA
Nursing Home Alert
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| Preferred
Business Associates News |
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 FAHSA's
Preferred Business Associates Program (PBAs)
-- A list of PBAs can be found by on the
FAHSA Web site www.fahsa.org and
selecting Preferred Business Associates from the
left side menu bar or clicking on the FAHSA
Preferred Business Associates Page hyperlink.
FAHSA members can also use the on-line directory
to search for PBAs by specialty.
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| Job-Mart |
| FAHSA is pleased to provide an
opportunity for you to advertise your "position
wanted" or "position available" through the
FAHSA Link newsletter and on our Web Page.
FAHSA members may use the Job Mart services at
no charge. A nominal fee of $25 will be charged to
nonmembers.
Your Job Mart advertisement will be displayed
on our Web site for approximately three months.
The FAHSA Link is published weekly and
distributed to our membership which is comprised
of nursing homes, CCRCs, HUD housing, assisted
living facilities, independent living facilities
and companies/firms.
To reserve advertisement space in our Job Mart
program, please complete the application
and fax it to FAHSA at (850) 671-3790 or E-mail
Erin Steele at esteele@fahsa.org
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Copyright 2008 --
Publication of the Florida Association of Homes
and Services for the Aging (FAHSA).
- FAHSA Chair: Alma Ballard
- FAHSA President/CEO: Janegale Boyd
- Managing Editor: Gail Matillo
Copyright Information: Copies of the
articles and other information in this publication
may be noncommercially reproduced for the purpose
of educational or scientific advancement.
Otherwise, no part of this publication may be
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any
means, mechanical or electronic, including
photocopying, microfilm and recording, or by any
information storage and retrieval system, without
the written permission of the editor.
Correspondence: Should be
addressed to: Editor, 1812 Riggins Road,
Tallahassee, FL 32308. For telephone inquiries,
call (850) 671-3700. Or E-mail FAHSA at
info@fahsa.org. © 2008 FAHSA. All rights
reserved.
Disclaimer: The information
contained in this correspondence is not intended
as a substitute for legal advice. Please discuss
any information gathered from this or any other
FAHSA publications with your legal counsel in the
context of your particular situation before
implementing any new policies or
procedures.
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