- 9 -
Mississippi, and it had a generally good reputation among
Mississippi’s elderly population. In 1993, the Sta-Home tax-
exempt entities were the first freestanding agencies in
Mississippi to become accredited by the Joint Commission on
Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). JCAHO
accreditation required achieving or exceeding certain regulatory
standards, including conditions as to the quality of patient
care. During 1995, the Sta-Home tax-exempt entities provided
834,596 home health care visits, and over 95 percent of the
entities’ services were to Medicare beneficiaries. The Sta-Home
tax-exempt entities also had several manuals that they had
developed in-house regarding policies and procedures, including
personnel, nursing, home health aid, physical therapy, and social
work manuals.
It was generally recognized that under the Medicare
reimbursement system in place in 1995, there was no ability for
home health agencies to realize profits beyond costs and that the
reimbursement system provided little incentive for providing
services efficiently. This situation prevailed because Medicare
reimbursed a home health agency only for “allowable” costs at its
discretion. Therefore, any denied claim for reimbursement
produced a cash outflow to the business. The Sta-Home tax-exempt
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011