BMHD CEO discusses potential change to home care program
By Logan Bagett on Monday, March 20th, 2023 in Eastern/Southeast Oregon News More Top Stories
JOHN DAY – Blue Mountain Hospital District CEO Cam Marlowe was on KJDY’s Coffee Time Monday, explaining a potential change from the hospital district’s Home Health program to Visiting Nurse Services (VNS):
“So, I just wanted to first of all say, that no decisions have been made, nor have we communicated to anyone that we’ve made a decision yet on moving to a different type of home care program. It’s an opportunity for many, many, if not all, rural health communities.”
Marlowe mentioned the biggest change would be how the program receives funding. Currently, Home Health does not receive reimbursement for the travel to and between patients, which could be hours of travel time in Grant County.
The CEO said if the district were to make the change, the goal would be to expand services:
“It’s not a way to reduce services in the community. It’s actually a way to promote growth in home care services. That’s what we’ve seen at other locations. We don’t have to change providers going into the homes, so that’s not an issue. I think there’s a real upside to this.”
Listen to the full podcast with BMHD CEO Cameron Marlowe below:
