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Medicaid Waivers Can Help Fund Home Care for Older Adults
The nation's governors met at their annual meeting on February 24th in Washington to discuss how to use Medicaid waivers to fund home care for older adults. The experts met before Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas, a Republican, and New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, a Democrat, both of the governors' Health and Human Services Committee. It was agreed that moving a patient from a nursing home into their own home does reduce costs, but there was debate about the 'woodwork effect,' where, if you provide benefits to people in their homes, a lot more people may claim the benefits than would have moved to a nursing home. Vermont, which allows Medicaid patients to receive home care, has not experienced this problem. The governors discussed measures to control the use of home-based services, such as placing patients with "lighter-care needs" on a waiting list and using a screening process that grants monthly allowances to patients to purchase in-home services. For more information. Contact: Peter Notarstefano, (202) 508- 9406.


Read AAHSA's Latest Nursing Home Regulatory Report
This issue of our regulatory report features the information you need on a variety of topics, including CMS' ninth scope of work for Quality Improvement Organizations, the list of Special Focus Facilities and more information on MDS 3.0. There are also updates from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and information about our work to improve the survey and certification process. Contact: Barbara Gay, (202) 508-9489.
| Read the report. |

What is New in Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS)?
Find out in the latest issue of AAHSA's HCBS Report. This report includes information about proposed Medicare and Administration on Aging spending cuts, the Targeted Case Management Interim Final Rule and new legislation that may increase the Federal Medical Assistance payment. There are also items on health policy grants, caregiver training initiatives and home health quality improvement best practices. Contact: Peter Notarstefano, (202) 508-9406.
| Read the report. |

Time to Test Your NPI
If you have been submitting claims with both a National Provider Identifier (NPI) and a Medicare legacy number and those claims have been paid, it's time to see if you'll get paid when you only submit your NPI. If the Medicare NPI cannot be matched with your Medicare legacy number, the claim with an NPI-only will reject, at which time you will have to go into your National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES) record and validate that the information on the claim is the same information in NPPES before resending your claim. If your claims are still rejecting, call your Medicare carrier, fiscal intermediary or other payer for advice right away. Have a copy of your NPPES record available. Contact: Iara Woody, (202) 508-9429.
| Visit the NPPES Web site. |


How Can Your Organization Recruit and Retain the Best?
Find out at AAHSA's 2008 Future of Aging Services Conference: Recruiting and Retaining Talented People, from March 31-April 2 at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C. The education program provides proven tactics and technologies to solve your most urgent workforce challenges. Attend the Workforce Solutions Day on April 2, an unprecedented program, to unlock ready-to-use personnel strategies that can help you gain a competitive edge in today's and tomorrow's aging-services field. Click here to visit the event Web site and register today. Contact: AAHSA@Laser-Registration.com, (514) 228-3159.
| Visit the conference Web site. |
| Register for the conference. |

Present a Session at July's Healthcare Unbound Conference
AAHSA's Center for Aging Services Technologies (CAST) is organizing the aging-services track at the Healthcare Unbound Conference, July 7-8 in San Francisco. The track will include three panel discussion sessions, one of which will focus on provider business models. How can you participate as a presenter? Send us a proposal with the presentation's title; theme; the name(s), affiliation and education of its presenter(s); a 200-word description; three learning objectives; the intended audience and the duration of the proposed presentation by March 4. Proposals describing practical implementations, evaluation results, payer's perspective, promising business models and provider's experience are particularly encouraged. This year's conference will focus on the use of remote monitoring and home telehealth technologies, with a special emphasis on Baby Boomers and the elderly population. Contact: Zohra Sirat, (202) 508-9438.
| Read about the conference. |

3,400 Covenant signers! Have you signed yet?

An Easy Way to Use Video to Tell Your Story
What better way to share your story than through a personal message from a resident, the CEO or a staff member? Our new fact sheet offers tips for creating a video message and posting it on your Web site. Check out how we did it for Quality First. Contact: Maggie Flowers, (202) 508-9421.
| Learn more about using the internet to earn the public's trust. |

Check out the February's Most Popular Tools and Top Viewed Resources on the Quality First Web site.


AAHSA Reports Feature Latest Salary and Benefits Information
AAHSA, in cooperation with the Hospital & Healthcare Compensation Service (HCS), recently published two reports with data on salary and benefits in assisted living and CCRCs from across the country. The reports feature data for 16 management and 23 non-management positions in these facilities. Data are reported according to for-profit and not-for-profit status, revenue size, unit-size, state, county and geographic region. Also covered are 22 fringe benefits, turnover rates by department, and projected salary increases for 2008. Copies are available to AAHSA members at a discounted rate. Contact: (201) 405-0075
| Order the reports. |

New Report Features Findings on Not-for-Profits' Advocacy Activities
Johns Hopkins University's Listening Post Project recently published NonProfit America: A Force for Democracy?, a report focused on the extent that not-for-profits advocate for public policies that fulfill their missions. Among other findings, researchers found that not-for-profits that served the elderly and children were the most likely to participate in advocacy activities. Close to a third of representatives from these organizations also reported that they had increased their involvement in advocacy over the past year. AAHSA is a member of the project's steering committee and many members shared their insights with the researchers. Contact: Katie Sloan, (202) 508-9472.

Try These New Board Education Tools from AAHSA
We prepared a PowerPoint for board education based on the 33 principles in Principles for Good Governance and Ethical Practice: A Guide for Charities and Foundations, an outgrowth of the work of the Panel on the Nonprofit Sector. Use the PowerPoint alongside the guidebook to review with board members their responsibilities in four areas: (l) legal compliance and public disclosure, (2) effective governance, (3) strong financial oversight and (4) responsible fundraising. Both tools are organized in four stand-alone sections, making it easy to cover the principles one or two modules at a time over successive board meetings. Contact: Deborah Cloud, (202) 508-9458.
| Download the PowerPoint and guide. |
| Consult a detailed reference edition of the guide. |

AAHSA Money-Saving Programs: Beyond Savings

Savings & Solutions: New Alignment Brings You More Savings and More Choice
You've heard the news by now. To help you save money in increasingly tight economic times, we expanded and enhanced our Group Purchasing Program by aligning MedAssets Supply Chain Systems to form the AAHSA-MedAssets Group Purchasing Program. We are now the largest buying pool of not-for-profit aging services providers. You now have access to more than 400 vendors. Chances are, you are already purchasing from one of our vendors, so just request to use the AAHSA-MedAssets pricing when you are ordering. If you're not yet a participant, you can easily enroll on our Web site. Contact: Toni Lindsay, (800) 827-4771.
| Learn more about our program. |
| View the Contracted Vendors. |

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AAHSA Member Profile: Name: Jim Albert Title: Vice-President for Information Services and Chief Information Officer Organization: Masonicare, Inc. Wallingford, Conn. Reason you work in aging services: The opportunity to make a difference where it really counts. Biggest Challenge: Helping Masonicare thrive in a rapidly changing environment Retreat: Community service and my family Theme Song: "I Did It My Way" - Frank Sinatra

 
New Opportunities Available on AAHSA's JobMart
Several career opportunities in aging services are now available and listed on Job Mart. Take a look. Pass along the news. If you have a job to post, consider using AAHSA Job Mart. Contact: Phillip Blackmon, (202) 508-9404.
Use the downloadable form to post a job.

Jobs posted in the past week (Feb. 22 - 28):

Administrator
Administrator for Healthcare - Lancaster, Pa.
Administrator - Crowne Point, Ind.

Marketing/Sales/Business Office
Corporate Director of Marketing - Sandy Spring, Md.

Nursing/Healthcare
Director of Nursing - Washington, D.C.
Clinical Mentor - Director of Nursing - Mechanicsburg, Pa.

Other
Project Guide - Arlington, Va.

Review the jobs online

Administrator
CEO/President/Executive Director
Finance
Marketing/Sales/Business Office
Nursing/HealthCare
Other
Wanted


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American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging
2519 Connecticut Ave., NW, Washington, D.C. 20008
phone 202.783.2242, fax 202.783.2255