How Do You Find the Best Care Management Billing Data Base?

July 19, 2019

You Need a Fully Loaded Billing Data Base to be Profitable

Some care managers still function on paper instead of using a care management data base That is a bad business decision. You need to give clients gold standard service to retain them and arming your care managers with the most user-friendly fully loaded client database makes their concierge care so much easier to deliver. This gives your business a more profitable a bottom line in running a business. So spending money on a client database makes your more money

What are Your Choices?

There are only four significant aging life geriatric care geriatric care management client databases? So the choices for client software are slim. Jewel Code and Care Manager Pro more have been around for many years A more recent addition is Care Tree The newest is I Health Home Geriatric care managers and ALCA managers are fans of Clear Care, which offers staffing if you also have private duty home care but is not really as user-friendly for care management needs.If you are a geriatric or aging life care manager or a private duty home care agency doing geriatric care management- which one should you use and why. Find what you need in your client database and check out each product to see if it has what you want.

Here is a list of what a care management database should do for you

Track all client information
Create and update a care plan
Create a client activity log
Tracks billable hours
Document client activities
Interface with a calendar for client and care manager appointments
Track client referrals
Track guardianship information
Track medications
Reconcile medications
Create a client face sheet with all demographics
Create a care community
Upload document and pictures
Do real-time updates
Be HIPPA compliant
Store historical client records
Create reports and export data
Create medication and text message reminders
Add custom patient field
digitalize patient paper records
go paperless
interface with care providers in the home via phone
Increase billing by making it easy to bill in the field
Patient portal
Have a calendar

Learn more about Aging Life and Care Management Billing

FREE WEBINAR-

Break Through Barriers to Billing & Profit: Financial Management for GCM &Aging Life Care Managers

THIS WEBINAR BEGINS: Wednesday August 21 2 PM PST Ends 3:15PM PST

DURING THIS FREE WEBINAR YOU WILL LEARN

How to Give Your Customers Have a Commitment to Pay You

To maintain Cash Flow

To choose the Right Billing Software

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Why You Must Bill 85%

Understand How To Hire Care Managers Who Can Bill 85%

Understand How to train your Staff 85%

How to Thrive financially at ALCA or GCM

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Danger Sign on Summer Vacation with Siblings and Aging Parents

July 11, 2019

It’s almost Summer vacation time. Are you rattled ?Are alarm bells going off in your head about aging parent issues -yet you have a brother or sister that hardly speak. You may expect another meal with your Mom in mismatched clothes forgetting all her nouns . You may see that sibling on the coming holiday gathering then largely ignore him or her.

Nasty surprises in store

But you and your sibling may have some nasty parental surprises on the family vacation to prompt you to rethink sibling cut off.

Front view portrait of two angry friends ignoring each other at home in the night sitting on a couch in the living room at home

If you suspect your holiday visit to aging relatives could have some alarming scenes, here are some red flags to put in a checklist and share with your midlife siblings before the holiday call.

Perhaps your aghast that your older parents have piles of junk mail, dirty clothes, unwrapped gifts when Mom used to shine through her color-coordinated presents. All are cause for the sibling 911 alarm- then action.

You can use this list to assess your parents or older family members during the visit and compare notes on a post-holiday conference call. If all midlife siblings have the same criteria, it makes easier to agree what to do and what to flag as family post vacation resolutions. But- if you and siblings are at war- it makes that conference call much harder.

Below is a list of red flags.

If you saw any red signals on Memorial Day , or expect to face them on Labor Day- now is the time to do something about it. Use this is a checklist of some worrisome signs you may have seen.

Alarm Bells List for Visiting Long Distance Relatives During the Holiday visits

Unpaid bills

Missed appointments

Clutter in a home that was once always neat

Weight loss

Memory loss, change in short-term memory

Poor grooming by a person who was once meticulous

Getting lost

Wandering

Refusing to go with friends on outings or to religious services

refusing any suggestion or conversely agreeing to everything without consideration

Mood swings, getting angry when normally easy going

Refusing to go to medical providers

Not taking care of activities of daily living: cooking, bathing, dressing, housekeeping, etc.

Entering contests, credit card maxed out on shopping channels

Time for a Family Meeting

When the midlife adult children return from the summer vacation, the family can have a family meeting alone or with an aging professional and look at the problems on everyone’s the list, agree on the top red flags and start helping the long distance family.

Don’t wait till you and your midlife siblings are shocked out of sleep by late-night calls from brothers and sisters, frantically telling them of a crisis with aging Mom or Dad. Don’t force yourself and the other adult children to book last minute, high-cost flights, and gather in scary, sterile hospital rooms with brothers and sisters they have not really communicated in years.

Call an aging life or geriatric care manager for help

Red Flags for Long Distance Siblings Inquiring About Services Before the Summer Visit.

July 9, 2019

Checklist Midlife Siblings Holiday Visit to Aging Parents

Do you have adult children inquiring about your services before the they make a summer visit to grandparents ? Here is a Check List of 10 red flags for danger to share with long distance midlife siblings for their mid- summer visit to aging parents? A midlife sibling summer or visit to elderly parents to can be bitter or sweet or it can be just plain scary. Ask them to call you when they return and you can set up a meeting with all the siblings to discuss care.

The frightening part often happens when you haven’t seen an aging Mom or Dad for a while. If midlife siblings live long distance, making an occasional visit can set off alarms, especially if they find aging Mom or Dad has gone downhill . Then a geriatric or aging life care manager is just the perfect answer. Let them figure this out with your geriatric care manager Sherlock Holmes guidance and clues to find your value.

Curb Appeal – Does your Dad’s home look more like an unmaintained rental? Is there disrepair, a weedy yard, uncleaned carpets or furniture?
Housekeeping – Are there dirty dishes, unwashed sheets, a mess where things used to be tidy? Does the house look like it needs a scrubbing, or at least someone to help with cleaning?
Medication – Can you find a stash of outdated medication in the bathroom, bedroom or anywhere? ➢ Driving – Is driving with your older Dad frightening? Ask him to drive you somewhere. How is his reaction time, or judgment? Can he drive at night? Does he have traffic tickets? Assess the car. Is it worse for wear, dented or are there telltale signs of accidents?
Trash- Are there bags of trash in the basement or out back? Look in closets.

Collections- Are there growing collections that appear to be out of control, of newspapers, magazines, old sports memorabilia, ashtrays – any accumulation that appears to be taking over space and looks excessive. This is a sign of hoarding
Shopping- Take him out shopping or out to a meal to celebrate the day. When he does shopping or pays for a meal, does he have problems with checks, credit cards, figuring tips, or calculating discounts? Does he forget his wallet or other important personal items he should have with him?
Change in Behavior- Is Dad quiet when he used to be loud? Is he paranoid, having mood swings, unsocial when he used to be the belle of the ball or life of the party?
Odors- Did you smell urine? Must? Mildew? Dirty clothes or dishes?
Refrigerator- Are there science experiments, aka moldy food in the refrigerator?
Unpaid Bills- are there piles of unpaid bills in drawers or in your loved one’s desk. Are their notices or gas or electric turn offs? Search their desk and perhaps, in you have access, look at their bill pay account.

If any of these clues turn up trouble, you should set up meeting vis phone or in person to talk your midlife siblings about the problems discovered and set up a family meeting via Skype, in person or a family conference call.

For More professionals can Read Care Manager’s Working With Nearly Normal Families- Working With Long Distance Care Providers in

Handbook of Geriatric Care Management 4^th edition

What Business Skills Must You Have to do an Aging Life or GCM Start-up?

July 5, 2019

If you a Nurse, Social Worker or Aging Care Professional or Business Entrepreneur and want to start a profitable Aging Life / Geriatric Care Management agency

What Business Skills Do You Need?

A new geriatric care management business must spring from the intersection of three streams: your passion, your competence, and market opportunity. To start a geriatric care management business, the adage to “know thyself” becomes critical. Are you passionate about geriatric care management? You will need passion to sustain you when the situation gets tough—which it does in all beginning businesses. You must have the core competence both to be a geriatric care manager (GCM) and to run a business. Good GCMs with no business acumen, which is often the case, frequently fail in business. You must also have the market opportunity.

Is This a Good Choice for You?

If no older people live in your community, you may not be in the right place to start a geriatric care management business. If 10 other GCMs are practicing in your town, that may limit your own market opportunity. Finally, you need to assess why you want to start this type of business in the first place. Are you motivated by the financial gains? by community recognition? by a need to make a difference?

You Have To Know Cash Flow

You especially must understand billing and cash flow . Without this knowledge you will fail like 50% of new business do.

How Can Reminicence Therapy Make Give an Elder With Dementia a Happier July 4th

June 29, 2019

Even elders with Alzheimer’s can find new joy with Reminiscence

Holidays are perfect for this as July4th was celebrated as a child and will bring back, fire cracker , fireworks, 4th of July parties of the older person’s childhood.When an elderly person develops Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia, the short-term memory is frequently affected but long-term memories , like long ago 4th of July can remain as intact and as vivid as they have always been during the course of the patient’s life. As a result healthcare professionals can use a practice called reminiscence therapy to help combat the frustration, confusion, and depression that can often accompany dementia and even bring joy to the older person

What is reminiscence therapy?

Reminiscence therapy is like a therapy session where the elderly person will spend time recalling memories of his or her life, perhaps telling stories about things that happened and events the person can recall.

Care managers and senior professionals can use photos, familiar objects, or other such items to help jog the memory of the elder. Some therapists can a scrapbook of a person’s life, including photos, letters, and other such personal memorabilia. This becomes a visual biography of the patient’s life and helps him or her remember who he or she is.

How does this quality of life therapy help?

Almost all elderly men and women can feel deeply discouraged and frustrated with their memory issues. Reminiscence can give peace and acceptance of the current situation by helping the person remember that he or she has had a good and full life. It also prompts the communication skills of elderly people who otherwise may not feel very compelled to open up and share anything with anyone else.

HOW DOES REMINISCENCE THERAPY HELP DEMENTIA

Using reminiscence therapy techniques can give the confused elder a richer quality of life by giving them with time with other people who will actually listen to them. Through this, a dementia patient is made to feel their thoughts and feelings actually matter. To someone who has an elderly loved one suffering from dementia, this benefit alone can make reminiscence therapy a form of joy.

There is even an app called Grey Matters, which caregivers and care managers can look into for reminiscence therapy for elders with dementia. If the senior is a BBC fan, like me, the BBC even has an app called RemArc to help dementia sufferers with reminiscence using old clips from the BBC. You can see in the future an app that has clips from Star Wars for present baby boomers or generations after that.

Books to Help You Open Your Own Program

Geriatric Care Manager Nina Herdon is the pioneer of adding reminiscence therapy to geriatric care management. She authored the chapter Quality of Life in Handbook of Geriatric Care Management .

Nina also created a book on quality of life activities you can use in your work and program called Joyful Moments

Order both and start using reminiscence therapy with your clients.

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