Agency: Many uninformed on health options

In light of a recent Medicaid fraud case that came before Charlottesville’s federal court, local agencies are trying to get the word out about the best ways to research a home health care agency.

“People don’t always know what they need to ask,” said Louise Bodenstein, administrator of Care Advantage Plus, which offers home health care services.

A federal grand jury handed down an indictment Feb. 26 accusing Pamela Kay Divine and Linda Utley McCrae of falsifying training certificates required for reimbursement through Medicaid, allowing untrained nurse aides to provide personal care and respite services through the former Advantage Care of Shenandoah. The women were accused of overbilling Medicaid by more than $150,000.

Divine and McCrae entered innocent pleas to the charges against them earlier this month.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics, about 1.4 million people received home health care in 2000. Nearly 1 million of them were 65 or older.

For the most part, researching a private home health care company involves conversations, said Musa Ansari, manager of advocacy services for the Jefferson Area Board for Aging.

“An individual can get that information by talking with people in the community who may have used their services, by talking with agencies like JABA and other health service providers,” Ansari said.

JABA gets 12 to 18 calls per month from people looking for home health care or personal care services. Spokeswoman Elyse Thierry said the agency often refers people to Care Advantage Plus, which JABA co-owns. The agency is unrelated to the one cited in the federal court case.

Bodenstein said she gets between five and 15 calls a day from people interested in having a nurse or nurse aide help them at home. Bodenstein said she usually speaks to each person for 15 minutes, figuring out the limitations of the patient and determining what kind of help that person will need.

“We should be able to guide people through the process,” she said.

Bodenstein said too many families calling her agency needed assistance long before they called. When they finally call, they don’t always have time to shop around. According to the AARP, the national average hourly cost of a nurse aide is $19 an hour; in Virginia, it’s $18 an hour.

The National Association for Home Care and Hospice recommends asking potential agencies about the history of their company, its hiring policies, what employees are expected to do in a person’s home, how their work is documented and how loved ones are involved in the home care process.

Bodenstein also recommends that families ask for references and whether the agency is licensed, bonded and insured.

Families also can get information from the state about health care employees. Anyone can access public information on a health care practitioner’s license by calling the Virginia Department of Health Professions at (804) 367-4400 or by visiting http://www.dhp.virginia.gov.