ALEXANDRIA, Va. (August 26, 2020)—Golden Heart Senior Care, which offers non-medical homecare services, is partnering with franchise development group Fransmart to continue growing their brand nationwide through franchising. Fransmart built its reputation by launching emerging restaurant concepts like Five Guys Burgers & Fries and QDOBA Mexican Grill into the powerhouse chains they are today.

CHICAGO (August 25, 2020)—Aetna and WellBe Senior Medical are working together to deliver home-based primary care to residents of Chicagoland living with multiple complex health conditions. By providing a new option for home-based medical care, Aetna is helping its members achieve their health goals and access high-quality care in the counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kankakee, Lake, McHenry, and Will.

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (August 25, 2020)—eSolutions, a health care technology company, is adding an enhancement to its Durable Medical Equipment (DME) Eligibility platform that allows DME providers to check for same or similar equipment items on multiple patients at once. This new enhancement, called Same or Similar Batch, verifies all Medicare HCPCS codes, including A, L and V codes, for same or similar equipment items.

WASHIGNTON, D.C. (August 25, 2020)—Providers were expecting to receive quarterly reporting instructions from the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) on Aug. 17, for funds received under the Provider Relief Fund (PRF) program. However, HHS has announced a delay in this information as they are still refining data elements and formulating a template to be used for reporting. The reporting system is still expected to be available Oct. 1, 2020.

 WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 21, 2020)—The House of Representatives completed their work on Fiscal Year 2021 (FY21) for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), allocating $96 billion to HHS for FY21. This funding is separate from the Medicare and Medicaid programs as those are considered mandatory spending and not subject to the annual appropriations process.

Following is a summary of the programs funded of note to homecare and hospice providers:

NEW YORK (August 21, 2020)—Caring People, a family-owned and operated licensed homecare agency, announces joining forces with Acappella in Home Care, Aging Care LLC, and AMR Care Group, while also launching new branch in New Haven, Connecticut. Caring People was founded in 2001 in Queens, New York in CEO Steven East’s grandmother’s kitchen and has grown over the past 20 years to become one of the largest private pay focused home health care providers in the country.