The conversation at Home Care 100 helped prove that agencies in this industry are looking ahead, bracing for change, and considering how to leverage this evolving landscape to best serve their clients.

AlayaCare was proud to participate in this year’s event in Miami, which isn’t solely about education and knowledge translation. There was a heavy emphasis on networking, which offers a change of pace and invites collaborations and more personal conversations about the topics that touch everyone.

On that note, here’s a look at how the key themes landed at Home Care 100:

Automation

We have come a long way from the time when “automation” was initially tied to the automobile industry and had negative connotations about the loss of factory jobs. These days, automated processes mean using machine learning approaches to achieve new levels of efficiency and success.

In home care, the industry is continuing to understand how to use artificial intelligence to help drive organizational decisions. How can each agency decode what the data reveals and use it to become more efficient? At the moment, capacity to meet the rising needs of clients amidst caregiver shortage is a trenchant problem in the industry. We must embrace data intelligence to become dramatically more nimble. We must build something different.

Shared risk/reward models

We are watching an increasing trend within private and public payers, where a greater share of risk is being offloaded to care providers. If clients ultimately don’t achieve positive health outcomes, agencies may be sharing in that risk.

The rise of value-based purchasing also means that agencies must follow best practices in all care they provide and, most critically, have data capturing systems in place to measure, analyze and even predict the effectiveness of care plans. This can feel daunting, but with modern technology, setting up such systems is more straightforward than ever.

Say goodbye to services in siloes

As the government cracks open the lid for home care agencies to provide a vast range of services through Medicare Advantage, client services will no longer fit into their respective siloes.

We will now be operating more as a continuum of care, inclusive of home health care, skilled and unskilled medical and non-medical. Agencies are in the best position to treat a whole client’s needs and be the prime player in every care plan. This is in step with a much greater focus on the social determinants of health than ever before, as one’s health is influenced by a collage of interrelated factors.

For every agency in America that hasn’t ventured into non-medical care, there is major opportunity to do so now in the form of Medicare Advantage reimbursement.

Centralized administration

Effective scheduling is a vital aspect of home care, as we all know. In an era where staying on track each day to deliver high quality care in every visit, scheduling must be on point – and ideally run from one place.

Plenty of conversation at Home Care 100 focused on the need for a centralized office that houses all administration, no matter how big an agency may be. Uniting schedulers in one office, instead of dispersing them to regional branches, means the best tools can be provided in one place and gains in organizational efficiency helps agencies extend their margins.

Agencies would do well to employ software solutions that include strong and flexible scheduling support. In the face of regulatory challenges, there are real risks involved in missed visits or scheduling inconsistencies. Agencies must be able to design the best schedules and routes that keep their entire workforce on track, which in turn empowers caregivers with access to up-to-date information to prepare in advance of client visits and arrive on time every time.

2020 is going to be such a big year for home care in the United States. And this conference continues to be a great way to regroup, re-strategize, and ensure that agencies stay one step ahead of the trends driving our industry forward.