Weathering the storm: a home
health care survival story
|
Weathering the storm: a home health care
survival story - Women in Business - Rhonda Billoups, Margie Jenkins,
SKILLS Home Health Care.
The early '90s were heady days for the home health care industry
says Rhonda Billoups, CEO of SKILLS Home Health Care in Baton Rouge.That's
because the fee-for-service reimbursement system that existed then
was a gravy train, says Bifloups, who founded the company with CFO
Margie Jenkins in 1993.Home care firms such as SKILLS hire nurses,
nursing assistants and therapists to provide temporary home medical
care to the elderly, disabled and infirm.
While a small percentage of clients were covered by Medicaid or
private insurance, most were covered by Medicare, the federal health
insurance program for the elderly and disabled.Fee-for-service meant
that Medicare reimbursed for every visit a therapist, nurse or aide
made to a client's home.
The federal money spigot attracted a lot of players to the industry,
making for a crowded market.At the same time, enough firms exploited
the system's flaws to enrich themselves that Medicare was forced
to scrap the fee-for-service model."There was really no limit
on how many times someone could see a patient," Billoups says.
"Then they (the government) found out the system was being
really abused."
|
|
