Mead
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Frederick, CO 80530 Permit No. 30
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Volume 4 Issue 1 January 2016 Since 2013
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Creating Community By Connecting Neighbors Gratification comes to those who don’t give up.
Galatians 6:9
Long Awaited Hospice Payment Reform Comes to Colorado
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Important enough to repeat, this rate reform charted below applies to Routine Home Care only. The patient’s home can be an assisted living, a skilled nursing facility, or a private home. It does not affect the Respite, Continuous Care, or General Inpatient rates since these are short term in nature. The Service Intensity Add on is an hourly rate paid for a RN and/or Social
Front Range Non Profit Tindakan Discusses Food Insecurity at Food For Some by Michael Browning indakan, a Colorado nonprofit foundation committed and devoted to improving and supporting projects for compassionate conservation, biodiversity protection, animal welfare, wildlife preservation and social justice initiatives, has a big schedule planned for the new year.
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Their kick-off event for 2016 is Food For Some at Denver’s Mercury Café on February 27th. Food for Some is an experiential event produced by Tindakan to raise awareness of food injustice in our communities and what we can do to help solve the problem. Attendees will randomly select a “class status” ticket that determines their wealth status for the dinner event. A few will play Wealthy roles, being served a multi course meal. Most will land somewhere in the Poor (rice and beans) or Middle Class (rice and beans plus some fruits and vegetables) while a few more will draw Homeless roles, having to fend for themselves and find what they can. An interactive group discussion will follow the dinner, concluding with an after party featuring live music and refreshments. Assuring us that no one actually leaves hungry, Tindakan director & co-founder Jeremy Gregory (of Longmont) proclaims, “Tindakan puts together events focused on edutainment. At Food For Some, we
want people to challenge their comfort zone while engendering empathy for the less fortunate. At the same time we want people to have a good time. Hopefully attendees will leave catalyzed.” The Mercury Cafe and Nooch Vegan Market are proud to be providing the evening’s dinner and refreshments at cost to Tindakan. A silent auction, sponsors and beneficiary information tables will be set up adjacent to the dining area. The funds raised from Food For Some will go to benefit three Colorado nonprofit organizations within Tindakan's beneficiary alliance; The Front Range Foodshed Initiative, Earth Tribe Ranch, and The GrowHaus. Tracy Halward, also of Longmont and Founder of the Front Range Foodshed Initiative says, “Food insecurity is an easily overlooked, but incredibly widespread issue all around our state and region. It's a vital conversation to have, it's the right time, and the approach Tindakan is using to discuss it is really amazing. Definitely not your average dinner party!” Through event-driven concepts, Tindakan hopes to effectively communicate its message to a wider range of the population (from urban to rural) inspiring, empowering and motivating others to act - as well as providing a forum to create significant economic, environmental and social change on the local level. Tickets to Food For Some are available at Tindakan.org.
Worker who are at the bedside delivering skilled services that are care planned. This cannot be used for unskilled services such as sitting with the patient so the spouse can go grocery shopping. Some hospices are worried that this is a significant rate cut disguised as rate reform. It will be a rate cut for those hospices that have long lengths of stays
and/or do not provide a lot of skilled care. For hospices that are close to the National Average for both their average length of stay (73 days) and median length of stay (19 days) and are providing skilled visits by an RN and a social worker in the last 7 days of life this actually comes close to our current rate structure if not more. Consumer Beware – Do not settle for less skilled care, medications, supplies, or durable medical equipment simply because the provider tells you “Medicare cut our rate”. For most hospices, this is not the case. For those that will see less revenue, their median length of stays may suggest that they are caring for a lot of chronically ill, not terminally ill with a prognosis of 6 months or less. As a family member told me recently, “not all hospices are the same”.
Trustees Appoint Mike Segrest Mead's Interim Town Manager by Melissa Mata he Town of Mead Board of Trustees appointed Mike Segrest to serve as Interim Town Manager effective December 1, 2015. Segrest will serve until a new Town Manager is appointed and will assist the Board of Trustees in the recruitment of the next Town Manager. Segrest has extensive experience in municipal management, most of it in Colorado. He has worked in the Colorado communities of Lakewood, Boulder and Snowmass Village. He also worked in Austin, Texas and Moraga, California. He is now a local government consultant providing services in interim management, executive recruitment,
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Times-Call
by Pam Ware, MSW, LCSW or years the Center for Medicare Services, CMS, has been talking about reforming the hospice payment. Since the hospice benefit was carved out in 1983 there have been no significant changes in reimbursement. The hospice benefit has (4) levels of care: Routine, Respite, Continuous Care, and General Inpatient. Hospice has seen some reinterpretations in our regulations but we have not seen a major structural change. An example of a reinterpretation was when CMS decided that hospice was responsible for all costs related to the palliation of the terminal diagnosis and related to the 6 month prognosis. This change was officially made on Oct 1, 2014. Prior to this, and you may still see articles referring to the old way, hospice was responsible for all costs related to the palliation of the terminal diagnosis and related conditions. What CMS has been grappling with is what I would refer to as payment fairness. The cost to care for patients costs each hospice more at the beginning and at the end of care. How do you adjust hospice payment to reflect this? After many years of conversations, the inverted “bell shaped curve” will come into effect on Jan 1, 2016. This will apply to Routine Home Care only.
financial sustainability, and strategic planning. "I am very enthusiastic about the opportunity to serve as Interim Town Manager in Mead,” Segrest said. “This is a great community with tremendous potential. I am confident that the Board of Trustees will find an exceptional person to be the next Town Manager for Mead.”
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