The Alliance is excited to announce a new collaborative partnership with the Visiting Nurse Associations of America (VNAA) focusing on aligning key quality improvement, education and research efforts in an effort to better support our members and the home health community writ large. Through better collaboration, the Alliance and VNAA will be able to focus collective efforts and resources on opportunities to improve care for patients and the health care system by appropriately optimizing home health care.
Both organizations’ staffs are looking forward to working together on a number of exciting events and initiatives in 2016 and beyond.
Below is additional information about the partnership, and some of the benefits for both organizations and the home health care community.
Who are the partners in this announcement?
The Alliance for Home Health Quality and Innovation (the Alliance) is a nonprofit, national consortium of nonprofit and proprietary home health care providers and organizations. The Alliance invests in research and education about home health care and its ability to deliver quality, cost-effective, patient-centered care across the care continuum. The Alliance is committed to conducting and sponsoring research and initiatives that demonstrate and enhance the value proposition that home health care has to offer patients and the entire U.S. health care system.
Visiting Nurse Associations of America (VNAA) is a nonprofit, national industry organization that supports, promotes, and advances mission-driven providers of community-based health care including home health, hospice, palliative care and health promotion services to ensure quality care within their communities. VNAA leads innovation and transformation for home-based care providers to ensure success in new health care delivery and payment models.
What is the purpose of this alignment?
The Alliance and VNAA seek to reduce fragmentation of industry leadership and resources to achieve long-term affiliation and alignment of programs and services for the benefit of the home-based care industry, the respective members of each organization, and for the public good.
Why is this alignment important for the home-based care industry?
The alignment of the Alliance and VNAA will significantly strengthen the voice of home based care providers in Washington and across the country. Aligning forces for purposes of research and education will strengthen the voice of home-based care providers, and allow for more efficient and more effective initiatives. This alignment will also allow VNAA and the Alliance to streamline resource allocations and strategic agendas to reduce duplication of efforts.
Why is this alignment important to policy makers?
Policymakers in Washington, DC have expressed concern about the fragmented voice of the home-based care industry. This alignment brings together two highly regarded home-based care member organizations to strengthen that voice and leadership for the industry. Collectively, VNAA and the Alliance represent a significant portion of the home-based care provided in the United States.
How is this alignment important to patients and family caregivers?
Strengthening the voice of home-based care providers will help ensure continued access to high quality home-based care services. Ensuring access to services will allow patients to stay in their homes and provide important support and education for family caregivers.
What impact will this alignment have on current members of VNAA and the Alliance?
Existing VNAA and Alliance member organizations will benefit from enhanced and expanded research agendas and materials, co-located meetings and symposia, as well as member-level access and pricing to both organizations’ events and materials. These enhanced benefits will be in addition to current member benefits provided by each organization.
What is the timeframe for this alignment?
The Alliance and VNAA have begun to work collaboratively on important initiatives, and will continue to identify new operational and programmatic opportunities in the coming months.
What types of projects are the Alliance and VNAA already working on?
VNAA and the Alliance have launched a collaboration to identify and promulgate best practices for home-based care services. Specifically, VNAA and the Alliance have invited leaders with appropriate expertise from each organization to participate in the workgroup on hip and knee joint replacement best practices in response to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CCJR) demonstration program. This program will increase demand for high value hip and knee home care programs, and presents a significant opportunity for home-based care providers. The collaborative results will support and expand VNAA’s industry-leading best practice resource, The VNAA Blueprint for Excellence. The VNAA Blueprint tool and website includes evidence-based best practice information, along with training information, evaluation metrics, and additional resources.
What types of collaborative projects do the Alliance and VNAA anticipate in the future?
VNAA and Alliance members may consider research into the impact of interventions supported by best practices such as VNAA’s Blueprint for Excellence. Such research projects would align with VNAA’s research database initiative. In addition, where feasible, the Alliance and VNAA will plan joint meetings to align projects, press briefings, conferences and symposia to advance research and educational efforts on the value of home-based care in new health care delivery and payment models.
Will the Alliance and VNAA continue to operate as separate organizations?
VNAA and the Alliance will continue to operate as separate organizations. The leaders of both organizations will continue to seek further areas for collaboration and partnership.