In a recent career article displayed on Yahoo! Hot Jobs by Doug White, he describes certain “accomplishments” that are not worth the mention. In our line of work, assisting home care and hospice companies in finding the right candidates, we review resumes on a daily basis. We come across a wide variety of resumes ranging from simplistic to detailed, with basic to stylized formats, and a multitude of arrangements of the pertinent information. It has been said that very little time is given to each resume so it is important to grab the human resource professional’s attention right off the bat. That being said, it is so important to highlight what you can offer an employer and how you fit the description of the ideal candidate.  Therefore, your community involvement would not necessarily be of any interest to the reader, nor would organizational affiliations that do not apply to the industry you are looking to enter.  Be strategic with what you decide to include on your resume because you are trying to market yourself and have very little time to accomplish your pitch.

Healthcare Concepts would appreciate your comments on the following:

Along with the rest of the country, members of the home health care and hospice community are asking how healthcare reform will affect them.  According to the National Association for Home Care and Hospice’s article entitled “Ensure Adequate and Appropriate Payment for Medicare Home Health Services”, the Tri-Committee’s (three-fold committee composed of representatives in the House with control over health care reform) proposed cuts would, over the course of ten years, cut approximately $57 billion from the Medicare home health program.  If the Medicare benefit expends $16.4 billion per year, as the article suggests, once you factor in the $57 billion in reduced funding, Medicare would only be able to cover 65% of projected expenses. As evidenced by the overwhelming response to proposed reform in the form of grassroots movements throughout the nation, voices are being heard and considerations are being made. It is not too late to make your contribution to the effort to oppose the significant cuts in home health care. Contact your representative today!

Here is the link to the article.  Let us know what you think about President Obama’s nominee.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/President-Obama-Announces-Nominee-for-Surgeon-General-7-13-09/

Hospice Rate Cuts are one of the hottest topics in politics right now. President Obama recently held a press conference discussing main topics including Medicare rate cuts. These Medicare rate cuts will greatly affect hospice funding all across the country. Last year, more than 1.4 million Americans chose hospice, but with these rate cuts hospice care is greatly threatened. An article recently stated, “Hospice care is a proven Medicare cost saver therefore these cuts will cause the taxpayers to actually pay more money than what the cuts are intended to save.” So, the main question seems to be why would you cut Medicare rates if they weren’t entirely beneficial to the country? Duke University did a study recently and found hat hospice reduces Medicare costs by more than $2,300 per patient or about $2 Billion a year. Why would you want to risk losing those savings? If these rate cuts go through the hospice community could potentially face a 6.4% reimbursement cut in 2010. As the article stated, “Hospice is the last best part of health care as we know it. Don’t let it fall to cuts!” As always we would love to hear your thoughts, opinions, or suggestions!

The October 2008 ICD 9 changes “hematuria” is now 599.70 and 599.71, both of which don’t have a CMS-HCC score. Is this correct?

If you know, please do respond to this link. Thanks for all of your help in advance! - Rachel

An article on streetdirectory.com stated that “Health is Wealth!” Frequently, you hear the statement that healthcare jobs are recession proof or that healthcare jobs are in most demand, but is this really true? Does health really equal wealth in this struggling economy? This article states that “healthcare jobs are the ones that are greatly sought after by both employers and applicants,” but why? An article from degreesource.com says that home health is one of the fastest growing sectors of the medical industry. Since the industry is expected to grow so rapidly, the demand for candidates to fill jobs will also rapidly increase. This is a huge deal especially nowadays with the struggling economy. In the article, it is also said that health care jobs are some of the best paying jobs all over the world, and the pay is expected to grow by 46% in the coming years. A rapidly growing industry and an expected growth in pay; what more could one look for during these tough economic times?