Agility

We put our agility into practice with the region meetings last week. I was scheduled to attend the Region 6 meeting until 7 pm the night before the meetings. Mandy received an individual membership request from Congressman Hagedorn AND an email from his Constituent Services Rep asking if he could attend the Region 7 meeting to learn about home care! Thanks for Region 6 and 7 for joining us in being agile…….I attended the Region 7 meeting and together we educated Ryan on the breadth of home care and the home health federal issues.

I realized at the retreat that those of you who don’t attend the Region Meetings may not be recalling the details of our new region meeting model. The education is offered via live video and is followed by a recorded MHCA update from me. The region I am attending gets my update live. My update includes advocacy updates as well as member and education highlights. Some of the regions are very engaging and I appreciate the additional insights gained from those discussions. Mandy attends a region meeting as well, ensuring each region has at least one staff attendee per year. You’ll see our plan to enhance this in the strategic workplan.

Home Care 100

Home Care 100 is a leadership conference for C-level executives from large home care and hospice providers plus a select group of product/service companies who are able to fully support providers as they move towards a value-based future. A couple of years ago, they established a state association rate and after hearing excellent reviews from my colleagues, I attended in January. In addition to excellent, forward-thinking education, I was able to make connections with several potential exhibitors and sponsors – making it well worth the trip! Greg Von Arx played a key in getting me introduced to many of them.

Federal Advocacy

While we’re on the federal issue topic, S 433 was introduced as the latest PDGM related bill. This bill ensures that behavioral-based payment adjustments are rooted in evidence and observed data vs assumptions. This is uploaded on our Advocacy Center – I encourage you to send letters asking for support.

Palliative Care and Hospice Education and Training Act  PCHETA (H.R. 647) would increase the number of permanent faculty in palliative care at accredited medical, nursing, and social work schools, and other programs; promote education and research in palliative care and hospice and support the development of faculty careers in academic palliative medicine. NAHC has re-introduced this legislation and invited state associations to sign onto a letter expressing support - MHCA is included on that letter.

State Advocacy Priorities

SF 74 continues to move forward. This bill includes many of the non-controversial issues from last session, including MHCA’s predatory offender and home care licensure revision language.

Start of Care bill SF 358 was introduced and referred to Human Services Reform Finance and Policy Committee.

Operations

Annie’s last day will be next Tuesday, although she is out on PTO a couple of days and the snow has interfered with knowledge transition time. Fortunately, Gayle has offered us some of Annie’s time – at no cost – for further orientation/training.  We will cautiously utilize this! I have also secured an out-sourcing option that was recommended by Serakos. Jules Enterprises will assist us with the financial and payroll tasks in the interim. As I have contemplated and researched the hiring of administrative support, it is quite clear that finding an affordable candidate to do the bookkeeping and admin tasks is highly unlikely. Kim has supported my seeking an Administrative Assistant and outsourcing some of the financial tasks for the long-term. I will strive to come in close to budget but it may be a bit higher than Annie’s salary. This plan will allow for greater efficiency and less loss of productivity that Brandi explained when we handle too many projects at one time.

I have a draft job description for the new Regulatory position – to be reviewed at the March board meeting, as determined at the retreat. Staff is finalizing the strategic plan details and I’ve reviewed it with Kim. This will also be on the March agenda – we’ll have a full agenda!!

Lastly, the call for board nominations is going out this week and was promoted during the region meetings. I encourage you to think about candidates you can nominate – we have 2 board members who are not eligible for re-election this year: Austin and Linda (who is the Nominating Committee Chair).

Stay warm and safe in the snow today!!

Kathy Messerli

Executive Director | Minnesota HomeCare Association

2550 University Ave. W.,  Ste. 350 S | St. Paul, MN 55114-1900

Direct: 651.635.0038 | Main: 651.635.0607

Toll-free: 866.607.0607 | Fax: 651.635.0043

www.mnhomecare.org | kmesserli@mnhomecare.org

Mission: MHCA represents and supports Minnesota home care providers committed to high quality home care services.

Vision: MHCA will shape the home care landscape to improve and sustain quality home care services.