Transcending Home Care Transcend Strategy Group, Stan Massey

Most healthcare providers – especially providers of care at patients’ homes – started their organizations offering one particular service line. Whether that original service was home health, hospice, private duty nursing or something else, many organizations felt the need to expand their services and engage with patients for more needs over longer periods of time.
When these organizations added even one more service, they often began to talk about their “continuum of care.” But how expansive should a continuum be? How can agencies know what service lines to add and when to make the expansions? How do you make margins on new service lines? And what about staffing when it’s challenging enough to keep current positions filled?
In this podcast episode, Rhonda Sanders, chief mission access officer of Empath Health, joins host Stan Massey to share details of how her organization has built a very robust continuum of care that engages patients and families at different stages of life. Empath Health offers 10 service lines – and growing – including a sexual health program for adults of all ages. Rhonda and Stan discuss Empath’s business strategies for adding services, keeping up with staffing demands, the use of telehealth, appealing to managed care plans, different reimbursement models and more. 
Rhonda Sanders joined Empath Health in November 2021. Rhonda plays an integral part in helping Empath Health continue to evolve as a customer-driven organization and is responsible for driving growth and enabling access among consumers, payers and referral sources for each of the organization’s services lines as well as overseeing the agency’s managed care strategies. A seasoned executive in healthcare operations, business development and sales, Rhonda has succeeded in leading growth strategies for home-based healthcare providers serving large, multi-state regions. Most recently, Rhonda served as vice president of business development for Amedisys Home Health, Central Region, in Lubbock, Texas. She also served as area vice president of sales/operations for Kindred at Home in Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and Oklahoma. 

Due to the historically weak reimbursement stream from CMS for palliative care, providers often have been conflicted with providing this undeniably helpful service and staying out of the red while doing so.
Some hospice providers started their palliative care service line with the mindset that it would be a “loss leader” – they expected to lose money on the service but hoped to build relationships with patients and families sooner, convert them to their hospice care as early as appropriate, and make up for the loss through stronger hospice census and LOS. For most providers, things didn’t really work out that way.
So how can providers deliver the comfort and quality of palliative care without hurting themselves financially … and build a program that can be sustainable?
In this podcast episode, Mark Hendrix, president of nTakt, joins host Stan Massey of Transcend Strategy Group to discuss wise approaches to solving the palliative care dilemma. The conversation covers billing practices, the role of telehealth, a smart foundational model to build a strong palliative care program, the future of reimbursement and much more.
Mark Hendrix has over 35 years of experience in process improvement and business turnaround. He is trained as a Lean Six Sigma Blackbelt with over 10 years of hands-on experience applying Lean concepts in healthcare settings. Mark also has served as Operations Director for CMMI Palliative Care Grant and has had results published in the Journal of Palliative Medicine.

Most providers of home care are struggling with major staffing shortages – especially among nurses, CNAs and social workers. The COVID-19 pandemic ushered in a new era of professionals reevaluating their careers, resulting in massive job changes and even “the Great Resignation.” Turnover among many healthcare providers is at record levels.
Recently, Transcend Strategy Group and MAC Legacy partnered in a national research project to explore what healthcare workers look for in their careers so employers can be more effective with recruitment and retention.
According to the research results, 30 percent of healthcare workers say they are likely to change jobs during the next year. Yet, not many have home care as their destination of choice. For instance, fewer than half of RNs say they would consider opportunities in home care.
In this podcast episode, Marcylle Combs – president and CEO of MAC Legacy – joins host Stan Massey and Transcend CEO Stephanie Johnston to discuss details of the research findings and insights gleaned. The conversation covers what the home care workforce cites as their top reasons for leaving a job, as well as the priorities they’re seeking from a new position.
By unlocking these motivators, home care organizations can promote their current attributes or build new ones to be more attractive to workforce recruits – and help reduce turnover of their staff.
Marcylle Combs, BS, MS, RN, CHCE, has shaped MAC Legacy to turn complex problems into simple solutions for home health and hospice providers. With more than 30 years’ experience in these home care categories, Marcylle has held many roles, including field nurse director, administrator and owner/president of a successful home health and hospice company.
She also serves on the board of directors for the Home Care and Hospice Financial Managers Association (HHFMA) and chairs the Women in Leadership Committee for HHFMA. 

It’s no secret that most seniors in America want to maintain their independence for as long as possible. In fact, according to the Disabled Living Foundation, the majority of seniors say they fear losing their independence more than they fear death.
For many, a main hallmark of independence is being able to age in place. A survey by AARP revealed that 90% of Americans age 65 and over want to stay in their home and 80% believe their current residence is where they will live until they die.
Other statistics show 27% of seniors currently live alone – and that number is projected to keep growing as Baby Boomers age. So, a crucial key to empowering seniors to maintain their independence, especially if they live alone, is the use of technology to monitor their health and well-being.
Ryan Herd – founder of Caregiver Smart Solutions and CEO of 1 Sound Choice (a company specializing in smart home automation) – joins host Stan Massey of Transcend Strategy Group in this engaging discussion on remote monitoring technology and its increasingly important role in caregiving.
Whether you’re a professional provider of home-based care or a concerned family member wanting to keep tabs on a senior loved one, existing and emerging technologies are making remote monitoring easier and more effective. Ryan and Stan cover a variety of significant factors for remote monitoring, including fall detection, looking for changes in living habits, tracking clinical vital signs and much more.
With 30 years of experience in smart home technology, Ryan consults with the home building and healthcare industries and is a sought-after speaker. Because of his expertise, he was selected by the National Kitchen & Bath Association to be a 2019 NKBA Insider to assist in educating its members about the importance of collaboration between technology integrators and the design community.
Ryan offers unique insight into smart home technology, the Internet of Things (IoT), and the significance of technology in the home today. He also is the author of “Join the Smart Home Revolution,” Amazon’s #1 best-selling smart home book.

COVID-19 magnified the need and desire for patients to stay out of hospitals if possible. A national survey conducted by Transcend Strategy Group revealed that more than 60% of family caregivers had greater confidence in the quality of care provided at home during the pandemic versus care in a facility. Plus, the repeating surges in COVID cases across the country pushed many hospitals to the brink – and sometimes beyond – when it came to inpatient beds available.
Cooper Linton – associate VP of Duke HomeCare & Hospice – is at the forefront of helping a major healthcare system rethink how certain patients can receive care at home instead of in a hospital. In this discussion with host Stan Massey of Transcend Strategy Group, Cooper discusses the pioneering efforts of Duke University Healthcare System in starting a COVID Care-at-Home program and examining the option of starting a Hospital-at-Home program.
The conversation covers a variety of issues related to these programs, including patient criteria to identify candidates for home care, the different demands on providers for managing higher acuity patients at home, and the growing imperative for remote patient monitoring and other technologies to enable the efficiencies necessary for a larger home patient census.
Cooper has deep expertise in managing home-based and community-based care. Before taking his current role at Duke HomeCare & Hospice in 2018, he was VP of marketing and business development at Transitions LifeCare (founded as Hospice of Wake County) for 13 years. His career also includes experience with home health providers.
In addition, Cooper is co-host of his own podcast “Edge of Aging” – a series that asks, “What if we reimagined how we provide care for older adults and their caregivers?” and explores the possibilities. 

COVID-19 ushered in an overwhelmingly stronger preference for patients to receive care at home rather than in a facility. A national survey by Transcend Strategy Group revealed that 60 percent of family healthcare decision makers are now more confident that quality care can be provided at home versus 33 percent feeling more confident in the quality of care at a facility. 
This preference, along with the growing demand for care as the huge demographic of Baby Boomers continues to age, is opening new opportunities and challenges for providers of home-based care.
In response, Bill Dombi – Doctor of Law and President of the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) – has said that providers of home-based care must demonstrate “a willingness to not only embrace change, but to lead it.”  
Through this important discussion with host Stan Massey of Transcend, Bill offers his insights to three key areas of necessary change: 1) Widening the understanding of what home-based care can provide; 2) The role of technology and other innovations in meeting the demands of home-based care; and 3) Developing a bigger and better workforce to handle the growing volume of home-based patients.
Bill has served at NAHC for more than 30 years, including his role as president since 2017. He also serves as executive director for the Home Care & Hospice Financial Managers Association. Bill specializes in legal, legislative and regulatory advocacy on behalf of patients and providers of home health, private duty home care and hospice care.
With nearly 40 years of experience in healthcare law and policy, Bill has been involved in virtually all legislative and regulatory efforts affecting home care and hospice since 1975.