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SESSIONS
FEBRUARY 12th
Day 1
8:30 AM - 9:30 AM
GS1: General Session: Navigating Home Health: Policy, Legislation and Federal Impacts in the New Congress
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Session Description: In this comprehensive workshop, dive into the current state of the home care industry, where policy, legislation and regulatory changes converge. Expert speakers will break down:
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The Current Legislative Environment: Explore the latest developments and policy leaders and their implications for home care policy and rulemaking. Understand how these changes shape your agency's operations and compliance landscape.
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Key Legislation to Watch: Gain insights into legislative bills that are critical to home care. Learn how proposed and enacted laws could influence care delivery, reimbursement structures, and the overall industry outlook.
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Federal Changes with Local Impact: Further understand how federal policies and regulatory shifts cascade down to the state level, affecting licensing, managed care, and Medicaid services. Prepare to adapt to these changes with practical strategies tailored to your agency's needs.
This session is designed to equip home care leaders, policy advocates and administrators with actionable knowledge to navigate a dynamic environment, advocate effectively and plan for a sustainable future in home care.
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Moderator: Rachel Hammon, BSN, RN, Executive Director, TAHC&H
Panelists: Hans Christopher Rickhoff, Partner, Akin
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Continuing Education: 1.0 clock hours continuing education for Administrators/Alternates
9:30 AM - 10:15 AM
Quick Hits Sessions
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Session Description: TBD
10:15 AM - 11:30 AM
Medicare Track
1a. Are you Ready to Thrive in 2025? Overview of the HH Final Rule
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Session Description: This session will cover information and updates on the Home Health Medicare Benefit as outlined in the FY 2025 Final Rule, Prospective Payment System (HH PPS) Rate Update, eServices’ Newest Self-Service Tools and Updates, home health billing errors and how to avoid them, Social Determinants of Health, and complying with provider enrollment requirements. Providers will learn how these changes will impact their Medi-care operations and billing practices.
Speaker: Charles Canaan, RN, Senior Provider Relations Consultant, Provider Outreach & Education, Palmetto GBA and Michael Bibbins, Senior Provider Relations Representative, Provider Outreach and Education, Palmetto GBA
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Continuing Education:: 1.25 clock hours continuing education for Administrators/Alternates; 1.25 contact hours Continuing Nursing Education (CNE)
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10:15 AM - 11:30 AM
Medicaid Program
2a. Texas Guardianship Reform: Choices, Self-Determination and Alternatives
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Session Description: In this session, we will discuss decision-making and self-determination, including the dignity of risk. We will also review the legal and practical aspects of the Texas guardianship process and Texas guardianship reform. The session will explore decision-making supports, including the principles of person-centered thinking, and include a discussion of specific alternatives to guardianship, such as supported-decision making. Additionally, we will review supports and services that can allow individuals with disabilities meet their support needs without a guardian.
Speaker: Jeff Miller, JD, Sr Policy Specialist, Disability Rights Texas
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Continuing Education: : 1.25 clock hours continuing education for Administrators/Alternates; 1.25 contact hours Continuing Nursing Education (CNE)
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10:15 AM - 11:30 AM
All HCSSAs
3a. Accelerating Growth: Strategies to Build a Skilled Home Health Agency with a High-Performing Sales and Operations Team
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Session Description: To grow a skilled home health agency, focus on building a strong referral network by cultivating relationships with hospitals, physicians, and community organizations while leveraging digital marketing to expand visibility. Recruit a high-performing sales team with expertise in healthcare and strong interpersonal skills to drive referrals and build long-term partnerships. Complement this with an operations team experienced in home health regulations, equipped with problem-solving skills, and adept at using technology to streamline processes and ensure high-quality care delivery. Together, these teams will enable consistent growth, operational efficiency, and a strong reputation in the market.
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Speaker: Katrina Garner, VP Strategic Partnerships, AccentCare Home Health
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Continuing Education: 1.25 clock hours continuing education for Administrators/Alternates
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11:45 AM - 12:45 AM
Medicare Track
1b. Strategies for Success for Review Choice Demonstration and Comprehensive Error Rate Testing
Session Description: This session will cover information on the Review Choice Demonstration to include program updates, cycle transition, top non affirmations and how to prevent them. This session will also cover Comprehensive Error Rate Testing (CERT) program to include CERT error rates, and how to prevent CERT errors of insufficient documentation (face to face, plan of care, certification) and medical necessity.
Speaker: Charles Canaan, RN, Senior Provider Relations Consultant, Provider Outreach & Education, Palmetto GBA and Michael Bibbins, Senior Provider Relations Representative, Provider Outreach and Education, Palmetto GBA
Continuing Education: : 1.0 clock hours continuing education for Administrators/Alternates; 1.0 contact hours Continuing Nursing Education
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11:45 AM - 12:45 AM
Medicaid Program
2b. EVV Alternative Device Reduction Schedule
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Session Description: To enhance program integrity, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission is reducing the use of alternative devices as an approved method to clock in and clock out of for Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) required services. The phased reduction will begin Sept. 1, 2025, and end on Sept. 1, 2028. HHSC will also cover/discuss EVV compliance reviews (usage, landline, and alternative device), as the grace period ends next year.
Speaker: Patrick Kampman, Director for HHSC, EVV Operations and EVV team
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Continuing Education: : 1.0 clock hours continuing education for Administrators/Alternates​
11:45 AM - 12:45 AM
All HCSSAs
3c. Marketing, Recruitment, and Retention – Oh My!
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Session Description: These three words might be some of the scariest for an Administrator in the current market. So how do you continue to move your business forward? This session will focus on strategic moves you can make within your organization to continue to see growth, client and employee satisfaction, and increased health outcomes without breaking the bank.
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Speaker: Lauren Tobey, MA Chief Impact Officer, Helping Restore Ability
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Continuing Education: 1.0 clock hours continuing education for Administrators/Alternates​
12:45 PM - 2:00 PM
General Lunch (included in registration)
Owner’s Lunch (limited to those owning 20% or more of agency
2:00 PM - 3:15 PM
Medicare Track
1c. OASIS DC Outcomes: Driving Success in HHVBP 2025
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Session Description: The Home Health Value-Based Purchasing (HHVBP) model for 2025 places significant emphasis on three critical quality measures: the Discharge Function Score, Discharge to Community, and Potentially Preventable Hospitalizations (PPH). Together, these metrics account for 55% of the HHVBP performance score, underscoring their impact on agency outcomes. This session will provide a comprehensive overview of these measures, their calculation methodologies, and actionable strategies for improving performance. Attendees will gain insights into leveraging OASIS accuracy, care planning, and staff engagement to optimize these outcomes and secure success under the evolving HHVBP model.
Speaker: Lisa Selman-Holman, JD, BSN, RN, VP Education and Quality, McBee
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Continuing Education: 1.25 clock hours continuing education for Administrators/Alternates; 1.25 contact hours Continuing Nursing Education
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2:00 PM - 3:15 PM
Medicaid Program
2c. Exploring Boundaries and Limitations in the PDN World
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Session Description: Coming Soon!
Speaker: Kristen Robison, RN, Chief Government Affairs Officer, Angels of Care Pediatric Home Health; Jonathan Willman, Director of Professional Services & Nursing for Consolidated Home Health; Troy Brooks, Of Counsel, Degan, Blanchard & Nash
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Continuing Education: 1.25 clock hours continuing education for Administrators/Alternates; 1.25 contact hours Continuing Nursing Education​
2:00 PM - 3:15 PM
All HCSSAs
3c. Building a Safe Work Environment: Violence Prevention and De-escalation Techniques
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Session Description: The US Bureau of Labor shows 61% of home care workers experienced some form of workplace violence, yet 63% did not receive adequate training or resources to cope with the emotional & psychological aspects. To address these startling numbers, the Texas Health and Safety Code, Chapter 331 has been updated and enforcement of the code began September 1, 2024. This course provides an in-depth understanding of workplace safety and de-escalation techniques, essential for creating a safe and secure work environment.
Speaker: Valerie Cornett, MS, Chief of Strategy and Innovation, MAC Legacy and Brenda Beggs, BSN, RN, Chief Clinical Officer, MAC Legacy
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Continuing Education: 1.25 clock hours continuing education for Administrators/Alternates; 1.25 contact hours Continuing Nursing Education​
3:30 PM - 4:30 PM
Medicare Track
1d. PDGM Metrics: Connecting Functional Status, Comorbidities, and Financial Outcomes
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Session Description: The CY2025 Final Rule brought significant updates to the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM), redefining how functional status, comorbidity levels, and coding impact agency reimbursement and financial outcomes. This session dives into these critical metrics, providing a clear understanding of how your OASIS answers and coding practices directly influence functional impairment levels, case-mix weights, and comorbidity adjustments. Attendees will gain the knowledge to adapt to changes in point values, comorbidity subgroups, and ICD-10 reassignments within the PDGM grouper. By mastering these updates, agencies can optimize financial performance and ensure compliance with evolving standards. This session equips home health professionals with actionable insights to navigate the evolving PDGM landscape, empowering them to align clinical documentation and coding with financial and regulatory success in 2025.
Speaker: Lisa Selman-Holman, JD, BSN, RN, VP Education and Quality, McBee
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Continuing Education: 1.0 clock hours continuing education for Administrators/Alternates; 1.0 contact hours Continuing Nursing Education
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3:30 PM - 4:30 PM
Medicaid Program
2d. Collaboration in Pediatric Home Care: Parents, Nurses & Therapists
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Session Description: Children with complex needs are supported by professionals within a robust medical neighborhood. Collaboration between parents, home-based nurses and therapists (SLP, OT, PT) is especially important. This session will discuss some of the barriers to optimal collaboration, as well as strategies for overcoming those barriers to enhance mutual understanding of goals, roles, responsibilities and priorities. Through this mutual understanding, a comprehensive plan of care can be integrated into a child’s daily routines, meeting the child’s physical, medical, social and emotional needs.
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Speaker: Jennifer Lawson, OTR, MS, Director of Operations, Knowledge is Now
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Continuing Education: 1.0 clock hours continuing education for Administrators/Alternates; 1.0 contact hours Continuing Nursing Education​
3:30 PM - 4:30 PM
All HCSSAs
3d. Leaning into Innovative Leadership!
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Session Description: Growth in demand, constricting workforce and added regulatory, payor and public scrutiny consume the time, focus and energy of leadership teams, as advances in machine learning and AI are shifting how we all approach the work at hand. Innovative clinical models can yield leadership time and sharpened focus, perfect for leaning into functional leadership approach. Join us to discuss how integrating machine learned data into long-standing theory can yield advocacy across all stakeholders, supporting growth, mission, and culture.
Speaker: Cindy Campbell, MHA, BSN, RN, CCS-HH, Senior Director Advisory Services, WellSky and Yancey McManus (Bond), Sr. Director, Solutions Management, WellSky
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Continuing Education: 1.0 clock hours continuing education for Administrators/Alternates; 1.0 contact hours Continuing Nursing Education​
FEBRUARY 13th
Day 2
8:30 AM - 9:30 AM
GS2. General Session: Creating Caring, Competent, and Courageous Leaders
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Session Description:
In today’s dynamic and interconnected world, effective leadership requires a balance of heart filled caring, technical and tactical expertise, and moral courage. This transformative training session equips participants with the tools to develop these three critical pillars of leadership: caring, competence, and courage.
Through interactive discussions and real-world scenarios, participants will:
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Explore the foundations of empathetic leadership to foster trust, collaboration, and inclusion
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Build competence by enhancing decision-making, communication, and problem-solving skills
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Develop courage to lead with integrity, take bold actions in uncertain situations, and advocate for ethical practices
This session is ideal for professionals seeking to elevate their leadership capacity, create positive impacts in their organizations, and inspire others through their actions. Participants will leave with actionable strategies and a renewed sense of purpose to lead with care, capability, and courage.
Speaker: Corky Curtis, Principal Consultant, Corky Curtis Consulting
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Continuing Education: 1.0 clock hours continuing education for Administrators/Alternates; 1.0 contact hours Continuing Nursing Education
9:45 AM - 11:15 AM
Medicare Track
1e. The Home Health 2025 Final Payment Rule and Its Impact on Texas Agencies
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Session Description: 2025 is set to be a year of major changes in the Home Health arena. This session will provide a detailed review of the 2025 Final Rule in Home Health. Any changes that are set to be implemented for 2025 will be reviewed with best practices for implementation. Join Melinda Gaboury as she will discuss the most recent update on the Value Based Purchasing Expansion, which has already had numerous changes finalized for 2025 implementation. And don’t miss out on the impact that recent legislation will have on Texas agencies.
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Speaker: Melinda A. Gaboury, COS-C, Chief Executive Officer, Healthcare Provider Solutions, Inc
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Continuing Education: 1.5 clock hours continuing education for Administrators/Alternates; 1.5 contact hours Continuing Nursing Education
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9:45 AM - 11:15 AM
Medicaid Program
2e. Contract Monitoring for Primary Home Care, Community Attendant Services, and Family Care
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Session Description: As a licensed Home and Community Support Services Agency (HCSSA) administrator or owner with contracts for Primary Home Care (PHC), Community Attendant Services (CAS), and Family Care (FC), if you receive a letter announcing contract and fiscal compliance monitoring next week, are you prepared to respond? It is vitally important that an agency administrator knows the expectations for contract monitoring and the requirements that may be reviewed during a visit onsite or by desk review. This presentation will provide an overview of contract monitoring for PHC, CAS, and FC contracts. The presenter will also discuss enhanced contract monitoring and agency preparation activities to mitigate contract actions by conducting routine self-compliance review.
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Speaker: Rosalind J. Nelson-Gamblin, RJNG Health Care Consulting, LLC
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Continuing Education: 1.5 clock hours continuing education for Administrators/Alternates
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9:45 AM - 11:15 AM
All HCSSAs
3e. HIPAA Security Rule Updates: More Fun Than a Data Breach
Session Description: The federal government published new proposed HIPAA Security rules on January 6, 2025, that will impose much stricter security requirements if finalized. This session will describe the proposed new requirements and offer suggestions for compliance. Finally, if there is time, we will cover other developments relating to HIPAA, including the status of reproductive healthcare privacy rights and how you must update your Notice of Privacy Practices.
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Speaker: Heidi Kocher Esq., J.D., M.B.A., C.H.C. Liles Parker PLLC
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Continuing Education: 1.5 clock hours continuing education for Administrators/Alternates
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11:15 AM - 12:30 PM
Lunch
12:30 PM - 1:45 PM
Medicare Track
1f. HHQRP and the CoP Updates from the Final Rule
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Session Description: The 2025 Final Rule included several elements related to patient safety and transparency. One such safety related change is a new Condition of Participation which entails the development and implementation of a patient “Acceptance-to-Service” policy. This session will cover the required elements of this new standard and what your surveyor will be looking for. Additionally, an overview of the 2025 Home Health Quality Reporting Program measures will be discussed so that you are prepared for success as your agency’s data is exposed to CMS, your competitors, and the public this year and beyond.
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Speaker: Jennifer Osburn, RN, HCS-D, COS-C, Clinical Consultant, Healthcare Provider Solutions Inc.
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Continuing Education: 1.25 clock hours continuing education for Administrators/Alternates; 1.25 contact hours Continuing Nursing Education
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12:30 PM - 1:45 PM
Medicaid Program
2f. Patient Centered Care in the Home Care Setting
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Session Description: Patient-centered care in home care places the client/patient at the nucleus of care planning to ensure client’s rights and dignity, enable informed decision-making, and meet the individual’s goals for quality of care and quality of life. This session will discuss the link between patient-centered care and regulatory requirements for coordination of care and case conferences to enable individualized planning and service delivery.
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Speaker: Rosalind J. Nelson-Gamblin, RJNG Health Care Consulting, LLC
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Continuing Education: 1.25 clock hours continuing education for Administrators/Alternates; 1.25 contact hours Continuing Nursing Education
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12:30 PM - 1:45 PM
All HCSSAs
3f. Tips and Myths Leading a Multi-Generational Workforce
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Session Description: There are many moving parts to any organization, but at the core, it’s people who make every industry tick! The emergence of multi -generational teams has challenged leaders across the continuum of care to develop innovative strategies to embrace diversity of skill sets to build better and more efficient teams. It has become evident that knowledge sharing, retention, and upskilling should be top of mind for all leaders wishing to create a cohesive culture. Although diversity of the workforce is a proven way to scale organizations, there is often stereotyping and biases which may challenge even the strongest organizational cultures. By learning to recognize and embrace these differences, organizations can attract and retain top talent across the generations and build winning teams. Join in this fun and enlightening presentation to explore various myths surrounding generations. Learn how to grow and improve your home health, hospice, or home care organization with practical tips that unlock the power of a multigenerational team.
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Speaker: Tammy Ross, MHA, BSN, Senior VP of Professional Services, Axxess
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Continuing Education: 1.25 clock hours continuing education for Administrators/Alternates;
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2:00 PM - 3:15 PM
Medicare Track
1g. OASIS-E1 Updates
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Session Description: This session will cover the new items, deleted items, and those revised in OASIS-E1. OASIS data is tied to PDGM payment, Quality Reporting, Care Compare, and Home Health Value Based Purchasing, and several changes were included in these programs for 2025. In this session we will also discuss 2025 changes to the OASIS measures which count for 35% of your total HHVBP score. Whether you have years of experience with OASIS or are brand new to it, the complexity of this data collection tool means there is always something else to be learned about successful collection and use of OASIS data.
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Speaker: Jennifer Osburn, RN, HCS-D, COS-C, Clinical Consultant, Healthcare Provider Solutions Inc
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Continuing Education: 1.25 clock hours continuing education for Administrators/Alternates; 1.25 contact hours Continuing Nursing Education
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2:00 PM - 3:15 PM
Medicaid Program
2g. Revalidation Process
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Session Description: Coming Soon
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Speaker: Coming Soon
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Continuing Education: 1.25 clock hours continuing education for Administrators/Alternates
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2:00 PM - 3:15 PM
All HCSSAs
3g. Bridging the Communication Gap: Equipping Families and Providers with Health Literacy Tools
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Session Description: Health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process and understand basic health information needed to make appropriate health decisions.” (SaferCareTexas.org) Individuals display varying degrees of health literacy. Socio-economic factors, generational trauma, culture, and language differences may create barriers to health literacy, thereby impacting families’ healthcare decisions and contributing to community-wide health disparities. Our role as healthcare providers is to help bridge the gap and provide families with health literacy tools so they can make informed decisions about their child’s healthcare. This course will help healthcare professionals and healthcare consumers identify health literacy barriers and implement evidence-based health literacy strategies to better equip communication practices and effectively inform and empower patients and families to make appropriate healthcare decisions.
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Speaker: Amy Bihl, LMSW and
Gina Suick, LMSW, Knowledge Is Now
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Continuing Education: 1.25 clock hours continuing education for Administrators/Alternates; 1.25 contact hours Continuing Nursing Education
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