Hoak Announces Resignation from HCAOA at End of 2023

Late last week, Home Care Association of America CEO Vicki Hoak announced her resignation. She will continue to lead the organization until her last day, October 24, 2023, after the National Home Care Conference. After three years at the association full of growth and many accomplishments, Hoak intends to focus on other areas of interest and spend time with her family.

 
“I look forward to the next six months to ensure a smooth and thoughtful transition,” Hoak said. “We will concentrate on continuing our strong advocacy efforts in Washington, D.C. as well as our state chapters’ advocacy efforts. [I am also focused] on making this year’s national home care conference in Chicago, the biggest and best yet.  No other home care conference has the breadth of excellent and relevant education, superb information that focuses on technology and business opportunities and of course, productive networking opportunities with both providers and HCAOA’s associate members.” “Vicki has been an excellent leader and advocate for home care for the Home Care Association of America. She stepped into the role just before the pandemic hit and both led and grew the organization during incredibly challenging times,” said HCAOA Board President Jeff Wiberg.
 
“My time with HCAOA will remain one of the highlights of my entire professional career,” Hoak continued. “While this position has been challenging, I have learned so much. I will cherish the many relationships I have developed with so many of our members and leave at a time when the future of this industry looks so bright.”

“Under Vicki’s guidance, HCAOA has become the strongest it has ever been. Thanks to her passionate advocacy and strong leadership, the organization is primed for greater success under new leadership,” said Wiberg. “For the past twenty years, Vicki’s voice, expertise and charisma have raised awareness of the value of home care. With the current political climate and how she has positioned HCAOA at the table, I am excited to see what the association will do in the future.”

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Expanded Home Health Value-Based Purchasing (HHVBP) Model HHVBP Newsletter – April 2023

The HHVBP Newsletter provides home health agencies (HHAs) with the latest information about the expanded HHVBP Model as well as important tools, news, and timely insights from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the HHVBP Model Technical Assistance (TA) Team. Please consider sharing this newsletter within your organization.

Information in this edition of the newsletter includes the following:

HHVBP Model Highlights. 1

Available in iQIES: April 2023 Pre-Implementation Performance Reports (PIPRs) 1

Measure Exclusions for Patients Transferred or Discharged to Hospice (1/1/2023) 2

Strategies for Success. 2

Strategic Practices for Maintenance Coverage. 2

Literature Link. 3

How CMS and its Stakeholders Are Addressing Inequities in Healthcare. 3

Contact Us. 4

Providers On Biden’s Executive Order, Home-Based Care ‘Drumbeat That Won’t Be Ignored’

Home Health Care News | By Andrew Donlan
 
The Biden administration has made mention of home-based care regularly and intentionally during its tenure in the White House. It did so again [last] Wednesday this time through 50-plus directives for government agencies, many of which were home care-related. 
 
Though still just directives, the sitting president making this sweeping of an executive order focused on senior care – in part – is worth plenty of weight. 
 
Home- and community-based care (HCBS) providers believe there will be short- and long-term effects of the directives, as well as tangible and intangible results. 
 
“There’s certainly some symbolism in there that is favorable,” Darby Anderson, chief strategy officer for Addus Homecare Corporation (Nasdaq: ADUS), told Home Health Care News. “It certainly puts a greater wind at our backs, shining a spotlight on home- and community-based services and the overarching caregiver issues. And that’s very good.”
 
The Frisco, Texas-based Addus is an at-home care provider with a heavy focus on Medicaid-driven HCBS. The company has over 200 locations across 22 states.
 
Broadly, the directives from the White House included: a path for more home-based care availability for veterans, of the personal care and primary care variety; a path to uplift the caregiver workforce, utilizing Medicaid funds to do so; and further support for the concept of self-directed care.
 
“There’s real concrete actions that [President Biden] has put into this executive order that are directed at different parts of of the government,” Anderson continued. “We’ll have to see how those are implemented at the end of the day. But there could be some real concrete improvements, hopefully to the services we provide and for the workers in [this space].” 

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The following excerpts were taken by HHAC of pertinent Executive actions taken last week and as described in a White House Fact Sheet:

• Improve access to home-based care for veterans. VA is directed to consider expanding its Veteran Directed Care program to all 172 VA Medical Centers by the end of Fiscal Year 2024. This program provides veterans with a budget to hire personal care assistance including from family members. VA will also consider piloting a new self-directed care program in no fewer than 5 new sites that provides veterans with a budget for personal care assistance while reducing administration burdens related to managing care. Further, VA will consider adding 75 new interdisciplinary teams to its Home-Based Primary Care program to serve an additional 5,600 veterans in their homes.

• Enhance job quality for long-term care workers.  To advance the President’s long-term care priorities, the Executive Order directs HHS to consider issuing several regulations and guidance documents to improve the quality of home care jobs, including by leveraging Medicaid funding to ensure there are enough home care workers to provide care to seniors and people with disabilities enrolled in Medicaid, as well as build on the minimum staffing standards for nursing homes and condition a portion of Medicare payments on how well a nursing home retains workers.

• Support family caregivers. To provide greater support to family caregivers, the Executive Order directs HHS to consider testing a new dementia care model that will include support for respite care (short-term help to give a primary family caregiver a break) and make it easier for family caregivers to access Medicare beneficiary information and provide more support to family caregivers during the hospital discharge planning process. Additionally, VA will consider expanding access to the Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers and provide more mental health support for caregivers enrolled in that program. These actions build on the 2022 National Strategy to Support Caregivers.

• Advance domestic workers’ rights. Care workers should be supported, valued, and fairly compensated, and care workers should have the free and fair choice to join a union. In particular, domestic workers providing care for our loved ones are often underpaid and subject to discrimination and abuse. To provide greater protection for these workers, the Department of Labor will publish a sample employment agreement so domestic child care and long-term care workers and their employers can ensure both parties better understand their rights and responsibilities.

FTC Proposed Non-Compete Ban Ruling: What Home Care Agencies Need to Know – A Q&A with Littler

Home Care Association of Colorado

The Federal Trade Commission’s proposed ban on non-compete agreements could have significant effects on home care. HCAOA has been watching this issue closely and will submit extensive comments to the Commission later today. The full comment and analysis of HCAOA’s response will be shared next week in the Home Care Insider.

Following a webinar Littler held last week, HCAOA approached the law firm to help unpack the issues surrounding the proposed ban for home care providers. HCAOA thanks Littler attorneys Jim Paretti, Michael Lotito, Joshua Vaughn and their team for responding to our questions.

HCAOA – Please share the background and details of this issue.

Littler - In January of this year, the Federal Trade Commission proposed a regulation that would effectively ban all non-competition agreements between employers and employees. The proposed ban applies across-the-board, whether the worker is a lower-wage front line employee, or a senior executive, and irrespective of whether the employee is paid additional compensation for entering into a non-compete.

The only exception the rule would allow is a non-compete agreement in connection with the sale of a business, so long as the individual who is subject to the non-compete owns at least 25% of the business entity. The ban would apply to future non-compete agreements, but also require employers to retroactively rescind existing non-competes and inform employees that they are no longer bound by them.

HCAOA - The FTC has released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that seeks to ban employers from imposing or enforcing non-compete clauses on workers. What has changed since the proposed rule was released?

Littler - Little has changed since the proposed rule was released—yet. The 90-day public comment period on the rule is scheduled to close on April 19, 2023; as of this writing, the agency has already received more than 22,500 comments on its proposal. HCAOA has been working with Littler on a comment urging the Commission to recognize the unique nature of home care and ensure that any final rule addresses these concerns.

HCAOA - How will this impact home care agencies and their employees?

Littler - Notably, the proposed rule goes beyond traditional non-competes and would sweep under its coverage any provision that the FTC determines functions as a non-compete. The FTC advises that while non-disclosure agreements and customer non-solicit agreements generally do not prevent a worker from seeking or accepting employment, if they are too broad, they would be covered within its definition of a non-compete clause.

The proposed rule cites two examples of de facto non-compete clauses: (1) a non-disclosure agreement “that is written so broadly that it effectively precludes the worker from working in the same field” when they leave employment with their current employer; and (2) a contractual term that requires a worker to pay back money spent for training costs if their employment terminates within a certain period, if the “required payment is not reasonably related to the costs the employer incurred for training the worker.”

The proposal makes clear that these two examples are illustrative only, and that under its “functional analysis” many other clauses that could be viewed as limiting an employee’s ability to change jobs may be prohibited as de facto non-competes.

It is not clear whether and how these final rules will impact certain agreements that are common in the home care industry.

HCAOA - What else should home care agency owners know? Should they take any action at this time?

Littler - The FTC will take time to review the comments. We currently expect the FTC to publish a final regulation either before the end of 2023 or in early 2024. A final rule may be almost identical to that which was proposed, or it may differ in signification respects (e.g., its scope or application). It is almost certain that upon issuance, the final rule will be subject to legal challenge in federal court.

Until a final rule is published (and any legal challenges resolved), employers may continue to use non-compete agreements and no changes are needed. However, be mindful that at some point in the future these agreements might be voided.

In the interim we recommend that employers continue to monitor developments so as to know when a final rule is issued, any changes between the proposed and final rule, and when any final rule is scheduled to become effective.

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