Posted by: Robert Markette
February 19, 2008
Topic: Miscellaneous

Well, it has been at least 5 months since I last posted on this blawg.  This was not simply due to getting lazy, but a rather hectic fall. As some of you may know, the firm went through some changes last year.  THe most obvious is the name change, which was the result of the withdrawal of a partner.  In addition, we had two other staff move on to new opprotunities.  This of course meant I spent a lot of time last fall interviewing and hiring.  Plus, I traveled to Orlando in November to attend the HCCA Compliance Academy.  This was part of becoming certified in healthcare compliance.  The seminar was excellent, but with all of that going on, plus client work, posting to the blog was sort of "on the back burner."

During the hiatus, I did have some time to  read a few other blogs and to think about how I had been doing this one.  As a result, I am gong to do things a little differently, mostly posting a larger number of shorter posts try to make it more like a blawg and less like a newsletter.  We will see how it goes.

I was reading in this week's ELI about the proposed Home Care and Hospice Medicare budget cuts.  As I read the prognostications about the effect of these cuts, I was reminded about two other pieces of legislation currently in Congress, one would eliminate the compansionship services exemption for third party employers and the other would radically alter the current laws on labor organzining, effectively eliminating organizing campaigns.  (The Union gets the cards, you get the union.)  These two pieces of legislation have been relatively "under the radar", because of revised PPS, budget cuts, etc.  however, these two pieces of legislation could result in radically increased costs for providers.  Combined with the projected budget cuts, things could get even tighter for the home health and hospice industry. 

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