Archived Press Releases
11/16/2010 HEALTHCAREfirst to Host Free Webinar on 2011 PPS Final Rule
Ozark, Mo. – November 16, 2010 – HEALTHCAREfirst, the home care software solutions pioneer of web-based
software and services, today announced that Cheri Whalen, Vice President of EDI & Regulatory will present a free
webinar, “PPS Final Rule 2011: What Will it Mean for You?” for the home care industry on December 7, 2010.
On November 2, 2010, CMS displayed the final rule for 2011 and it contained some significant changes for home
care in the upcoming year. This webinar, offered at no charge, will discuss the upcoming changes for 2011 and how
they will affect organizations. It will cover all of the important regulations, requirements, cuts & changes that are
coming in the future for Home Health & Hospice agencies.
About the Speaker
Cheri Whalen, Vice President of EDI & Regulatory for HEALTHCAREfirst, brings over 17 years of experience
focused exclusively within the Home Health and Hospice industry. She currently assist agencies with setting up and
maintaining regulatory compliance with Medicare, state auditors and accrediting bodies as well as providing software
design for billing, electronic data interchange and regulatory compliance. Cheri can be contacted at 800.841.6095 or
by email at cheri.whalen@healthcarefirst.com.
About HEALTHCAREfirst
HEALTHCAREfirst provides leading-edge technologies that improve business and clinical functions to home
health care and hospice agencies across the United States. HEALTHCAREfirst was one of the first home health
care software vendors to recognize the industry’s need for high quality software applications that are accessible over
the internet. Based in Ozark, MO and one of the fastest growing providers of its kind, the company provides clients
with web-available software, billing and coding that ensure technology is not a barrier to patient care, but a
powerful tool. HEALTHCAREfirst allows caregivers to focus on their primary goal of providing the best
possible patient care. For more information call 800.841.6095 or visit the company’s website at
www.healthcarefirst.com.
8/20/2010 HEALTHCAREfirst to Exhibit at NAHC Annual Meeting
Merger With Lewis, Inc. Creates The Most Complete Home Health Care And Hospice Services Provider
Ozark, Mo. – August 20, 2010 – HEALTHCAREfirst, the home care software solutions veteran that pioneered web-based software and services for the home health care and hospice industries, will be exhibiting at the National Association for Home Care & Hospice Annual Meeting for the first time since the acquisition of Lewis, Inc.
Through this acquisition, HEALTHCAREfirst now offers the most comprehensive set of software & solutions available to the home care industry including firstHOMECARE, their web-based agency management software, as well as billing, billing recovery and coding services. In addition, they offer industry leading financial management solutions as well as firstCPO physician portal.
NAHC Annual meeting attendees are encouraged to stop by booths #717 and #1011 to find out why over 1,200 agencies have chosen HEALTHCAREfirst as their first choice for home health and hospice software & services.
About HEALTHCAREfirst
HEALTHCAREfirst provides leading-edge technologies that improve business and clinical functions to home health care and hospice agencies across the United States. HEALTHCAREfirst was one of the first home health care software vendors to recognize the industry’s need for high quality software applications that are accessible over the internet. Based in Ozark, MO and one of the fastest growing providers of its kind, the company provides clients with web-available software, billing and coding that ensure technology is not a barrier to patient care, but a powerful tool. HEALTHCAREfirst allows caregivers to focus on their primary goal of providing the best possible patient care. For more information call 800.841.6095 or visit the company’s website at www.healthcarefirst.com.
6/7/2010 HEALTHCAREfirst Announces Acquisition Of Lewis
For Home Health Care And Hospice Services Providers
Ozark, Mo. – June 7, 2010 – HEALTHCAREfirst, the Home Care software solutions veteran that pioneered Web-based software and services for the Home Health Care and Hospice industries, announced today its acquisition of Lewis Computer Services, Inc. (Lewis). In this latest move to further establish its leadership in the industry, HEALTHCAREfirst plans to leverage the combined company’s collective, industry-leading software products and services to offer stronger and more comprehensive solutions for current and future customers of both companies.
Since 1992, HEALTHCAREfirst has pioneered the next generation of software and services exclusively to the Home Health Care and Hospice industries featuring the firstHOMECARE and firstHOSPICE solutions on its signature, Web-based SaaS platform. The company also delivers billing, billing recovery and coding services that streamline and advance operations and care for agencies of all sizes nationwide.
“We are thrilled with the opportunity to create the industry’s strongest and most complete solution provider. As with HEALTHCAREfirst, Lewis has great people and very unique offerings that will allow our combined company to fully enable agencies of all sizes to focus on patient care instead of paperwork,” says HEALTHCAREfirst President and CEO Bobby Robertson. “We fully intend to make the most of this opportunity. Customers of both companies will continue to receive exactly what they expect and need while seeing their solutions grow even stronger as our technology and services continue to advance.”
Founded in 1982 and based in Baton Rouge, La., Lewis delivers an array of solutions that promise to further advance HEALTHCAREfirst’s offerings for Home Health Care agencies, including its flagship products Patron and Patron POC. These, along with Lewis’ many first-to-market and other products, will serve as the perfect complement for HEALTHCAREfirst’s deliverables to offer stronger and more comprehensive solutions for both current and future clients. In addition, HEALTHCAREfirst’s industry-leading software and services will significantly benefit Lewis by providing additional solutions, deliverables and strong support. The relationship will effectively integrate the best features of each company’s solutions and make them available to advance Home Health Care and Hospice services.
“The biggest advantage of this new arrangement is how it will benefit our customers,” says Jeff Lewis, Founder and CEO of Lewis. “Lewis customers will still have the same solutions they depend on and so will HEALTHCAREfirst’s – but both will now have stronger products and even better support from the combined company.”
About HEALTHCAREfirst
HEALTHCAREfirst provides leading-edge technologies that improve business and clinical functions to Home Health Care and Hospice agencies across the United States. HEALTHCAREfirst was one of the first Home Health Care software vendors to recognize the industry’s need for high quality software applications that are accessible over the World Wide Web. Based in Ozark, Mo. and one of the fastest growing providers of its kind, the company provides clients with Web-available software, billing and coding that ensure technology is not a barrier to patient care, but a powerful tool. HEALTHCAREfirst allows caregivers to focus on their primary goal of providing the best possible patient care. For more information call 800.841.6095 or visit the company’s Web site at www.healthcarefirst.com.
About Lewis Computer Services, Inc.
Lewis Computer Services, Inc. is in its third decade providing Home Health data management systems to the Home Health Care industry. The company’s products and services focus on efficient workflow and usability to streamline and improve documentation, payment, scheduling, patient care and more. Based in Baton Rouge, La., Lewis designs its products with the flexibility to serve organizational structures from single-office agencies to multi-tiered corporations. For more information call 225.709.2104 or visit the company’s Web site at www.lewis.com.
1/13/2010 HEALTHCAREfirst President & CEO invited to Participate in Strategic Planning Congress
Bobby Robertson has been invited to and will participate in the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (“NAHC”) 2010 Strategic Planning Congress. This Congress brings together the best minds in the home health and hospice industries. The event is being held at the Ritz Carleton in Key Biscayne, Florida on February 11-12, 2010.
“The Home Care and Hospice providers I’ve been privileged to work with over the last fifteen plus years, are the cornerstone of efficient and quality health care for our nation’s elderly population. It is my responsibility to make their concerns known, by working to influence the strategic direction of the National Association for Home Care & Hospice in its efforts with Congress. I look forward to contributing to the fight to protect the rights of our providers and their patients.”
HEALTHCAREfirst, Inc.(www.healthcarefirst.com)
HEALTHCAREfirst has been providing software and services exclusively to the home care and hospice industries since 1992. The company is dedicated to providing cutting edge technologies that improve business functions to home care and hospice agencies across the United States. HEALTHCAREfirst was one of the first home care software vendors to recognize the industrys need for high quality software applications that are accessible over the worldwide web.
6/15/2009 firstCPO article in Home Health Line publication
HOME HEALTH LINE
June 15, 2009
Volume 34, Issue 23
New Web-based system offers hassle-free CPO payments
Physicians have a new incentive to claim CPO payments – and to refer to HHAs that help them.
It’s a software program that lets them review plans of care and any suggested amendments on a dedicated Web site while also keeping a running total of the minutes physician users spend on them.
Called firstCPO, the software is an easy solution to the Medicare requirement that practitioners seeking CPO reimbursement do 30 minutes per month of related oversight work to be eligible, says Bobby Robertson, CEO for HEALTHCAREfirst, the Ozark, Mo.-based company that developed the program.
The reaction from the first physicians that have been introduced to this has been “very enthusiastic,” says Teresa Henson, assistant administrator of Shepard’s Crook Nursing Agency, a 275-patient HHA in Pampa, Texas, one of the first users of firstCPO.
The program will mean even more local physicians seeking CPO payments, she predicts.
Interim HealthCare added a similar CPO tracking option last year to the Web-based information system it operates for some last 320 company and franchise-owner locations [HHL 3/23/09].
firstCPO to become available to all
HEALTHCAREfirst has made this program available without charge to either the physicians that refer to the vendor’s approximately 400 HHA clients or to the client agencies themselves, Robertson says.
Starting this summer, however, the company expects to make the program available to all agencies. The charge for participating HHAs will be $2 to $3 per patient per month, though the service will continue to be free for doctors who use it, says CEO Robertson.
Recession triggers more CPO activity
Of the roughly 100 primary care practitioners referring to Shepard’s Crook Nursing Agency, some 75% already are filing for oversight dollars, or more than twice the percentage two years ago.
The increase largely reflects the loss of practice revenues precipitated by the recession, Henson believes. Evidence of that is the physicians who hadn’t been submitting CPO claims but who recently have asked Shepard’s Crook for “15 months of paper” needed to support claims going back that far.
Henson hopes that firstCPO will help her agency avoid such requests in the future by making communications with doctors more efficient. Advised by e-mail notices, practitioners will be able to review and sign off on care plans and other patient information within minutes of its posting on the HHA’s Web site, Henson notes. Transmission of wound photos through firstCPO is in the planning stage.
Physicians reluctant to embrace CPO
Responses to a recent HHL survey on care-plan oversight suggest agency marketers find slightly more than half the physician practices they call on unreceptive to seeking CPO payment.
Staff physicians at Archbold Medical Center in Thomasville, Ga., “were happy to jump on the CPO bandwagon” several years ago after Archbold’s home health unit, Archbold Health Services, began educating them about the reimbursement to be earned, says Carissa Hill, the agency’s community services coordinator. But in time the burden of the 30-minute requirement has reduced CPO filers to only “a handful” while nearly all continue to seek certification/recertification payments, which doesn’t have the same 30-minute requirement, Hill says. One favorable sign in the survey responses is the suggestion that Part B carriers are rejecting CPO claims much less frequently than they once did.
– Burt Schorr [bschorr@decisionhealth.com]
Subscription information for Home Health Line is available at 877/602-3835 or customer@decisionhealth.com