NAMES, HIDA, HHSSA are set for Jan. 1 merger
NAMES, HIDA, HHSSA are set for Jan. 1 merger
By MATTHEW HAY
HHBR Washington Correspondent
ALEXANDRIA Three national home care associations that formally announced a merger Dec. 17 are wasting no time implementing that plan. Effective Jan. 1, the Washington, DC-based Home Health Services and Staffing Association (HHSSA), and the National Association for Medical Equipment Services (NAMES) and the home care component of the Health Industry Distributors Association, both based in Alexandria, VA, will begin operation as the American Association for Homecare (AAH).
NAMES Chairman Mario Lacute also broached the possibility of bringing other national home care groups under AAH. "We currently don’t have any other active ongoing discussions," said LaCute. But he said he hopes the new organization will lead to further consolidation. "We would expect this is probably going to prompt some other groups to get a hold of us or we may express the interest we have with some other groups."
HHSSA Chairman David Savitsky says there has been a growing recognition, especially in the wake of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (BBA) implemented the interim payment system, that agencies face the same reimbursement structure and evaluation and audit procedures regardless of how they are organized. "There are issues that transcend the narrow corporate focus of any organization and affect every home care company," he said.
Joel Mills, chairman of HIDA’s Home Care Advisory Council, said he hopes the new organization will attract home health companies that may have been "sitting on the sidelines waiting for a good alternative" as well as companies that offer a "one-stop-shop." While there are no impending associations that might be joining AAH, he said he hopes there are continued discussions with other groups. "I think the stronger and more unified voice we have, the stronger our position will be," he said.
Savitsky also said he hopes AAH will attract home health agencies that fall outside the HHSSA’s association's traditional membership, which has traditionally been made up of for-profit home health chains. "Our membership is going to be a very broad-based membership," he said. "It is going to encompass not-for-profit, proprietary, facility-based, freestanding and government-owned agencies."
"Regardless of the kind of home care services they provide and how they are organized, we want to be the association that can represent them," he said. "We are not looking to be exclusionary, we want to be inclusionary.
"This is what we have put together at this point in time because we do feel that there is a real need to speak on behalf of the industry with one unified voice," Savitsky said. "We have heard from Congress loud and clear that they would like to know the positions of the home care industry and here them in a consistent way.
"What we have done is really broaden the base so that we have home health care and HME all together in one association that has a large membership and a large constituency," he added. "We think will be able to speak with one voice representing all the interests of the home care industry."
Mills said the Home Care Coalition, a formal coalition of most of the national home care groups, will no longer continue to exist under HIDA’s leadership but may continue to exist under AAH. "That is yet to be determined," he said. "I am sure we will be working with other associations to come up with unified positions on particular issues."
Earlier in the year, former NAMES President Bill Coughlan irked some of his association counterparts when he sought to develop a coalition that was largely seen as mimicking the longstanding Home Care Coali tion administered by HIDA. Shortly after LaCute took over as NAMES chairman, however, he met with several home care association leaders with his argument for a unified coalition.
The new organization will be headquartered in NAMES’ current offices, which once accommodated a staff that was double the size of the organization’s current 12-person staff. LaCute said the timeframe for establishing a new board of directors and other administrative decisions would come next week. "We don’t expect any staff to not be included in the new plan," he added. "In fact, we are probably going to have to add some staff."
This is not the first time NAMES and HIDA have talked about a merger. The two groups came close to striking a deal in the early 1990s, but HIDA’s board of directors balked at the last minute. In recent years, however, declining Medicare reimbursement, continued mergers and rising dues had reduced NAMES’ membership from roughly 2,000 three years ago to about 800 today. "It [the merger] has been a long timing coming," Mills said, adding that a search committee for a new president is now being developed so that a new president can be hired as soon as soon as possible.
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