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About NAHC FAQs
What is the National Association for Home
Care and Hospice (NAHC)?
NAHC is the nation's largest trade association representing the interests and concerns
of home care agencies, hospices, home care aide organizations, and medical equipment
suppliers. Simply put, NAHC is the one organization dedicated to making home care
and hospice providers lives easier. From professional development to fighting for
better regulation, from knowing all angles of federal and state regulations to
providing the latest information affecting home care and hospice, NAHC stands ready
to serve your needs, enabling you to better serve your patients.
Who are NAHC's members?
NAHC members are primarily corporations or other organizational entities providing
care directly in the home setting, in addition to state home care associations,
medical equipment suppliers, and schools. NAHC also offers individual memberships.
Increasingly, professionals such as social workers, nurses, and home care aides
who are employed by home care agencies or are interested in home care are joining
one of the forums established by NAHC to serve the specific needs of these fields.
What is NAHC's mission?
NAHC believes that Americans should receive health care and social services in
their own homes, so far as this is possible. Senior citizens and other vulnerable
groups should be able to live in independence through the assistance of home
care services, making institutionalization a last resort. NAHC seeks to reverse
the current bias that places hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of fragile
children and chronically ill seniors in nursing homes or retained in hospitals
when they could receive equal or better care at home.
NAHC believes that home care keeps families together and is
devoted to doing all in its power to preserve the sanctity of
the American family, the bedrock of American democracy.
How did NAHC get started?
The National Association for Home Care and Hospice was founded in Washington, DC
on March 10, 1982, through a merger of the National Association for Home Health
Agencies (NAHHA) and the Council of Home Health Agencies/Community Health Services
(CHHA/CHS). The structure that was adopted accommodates both geographic and organizational
differences of provider members. Specific representation on the Board of Directors
was created for each of the 10 governmental regions of the US and for each different
type of home care provider, that is, proprietary, voluntary, hospice, and so
forth. In 1986, NAHC merged with the National Homecaring Council, which became
part of NAHC's related Foundation for Hospice and Home Care.
What are the purposes for which NAHC was
organized?
The following purposes were approved by the Board of Directors and is included
in NAHC's articles of incorporation:
- To serve as the unified voice for the home care and hospice
community.
- To provide direct needed services to the members.
- To heighten the political visibility of home care and hospice
interests.
- To influence the legislative, judicial, and regulatory
processes with respect to issues of importance to hospice
and home care.
- To sponsor research by gathering and disseminating home
care and hospice data.
- To promote home care and hospice services as viable components
of the health delivery system.
- To foster, develop, and promote high standards of patient
care in home care and hospice services.
- To provide expert advice and assistance to members on management,
legal, and operational issues.
- To disseminate information to the media and the general
public that promotes knowledge and acceptance of home care
and hospice services and support for family/informal caregivers.
- To expand private health insurance and other third-party
sources for financing hospice and home care services and
issues.
To promote collaboration among national, state, and local organizations relating
to home care and hospice services and issues.
- To initiate, sponsor, and promote educational reforms.
- To represent the interests of caregivers (nurses, home
care aides, physicians, and therapists) who work in the home
care field and to encourage individuals to choose a career
in home care and hospice services.
- To protect the legal rights of hospice and home care beneficiaries,
providers, and their employees.
- To promote the independence of and contributions made by
potential home care clients, thereby shattering the myth
that dependence is a necessary state for the aged and disabled
in America.
Why was NAHC organized as a trade association?
NAHC was established as a trade association because of a fundamental desire to
unify an industry whose past divisiveness and lack of organization rendered it
impotent in its efforts to influence the outcome of legislation before Congress
or to shape regulations promulgated by the Department of Health and Human Services.
A trade association seeks to unify an interest group, to enlist
as many members as possible, and to speak with one voice before
Congress. Trade associations sometimes affect changes that even
benefit nonmembers. The philosophy of NAHC's founders was for
an inclusive membership policy; that it should take in all those
who provide home care under one umbrella; and, moreover, that
it should try to help as many agencies as possible, including
those who cannot afford to pay its dues.
Why was the association called the National
Association for Home Care and Hospice instead of the National
Association for Home Health and Hospice Agencies?
The primary reason for the selection was to encompass all in-home health, hospice,
and social services provided by all home care agencies, and to inform the public
that NAHC represents more than Medicare-certified home care and hospice agencies.
Even though most of its members are traditional Medicare-certified home care and
hospice agencies and much of its energies have been directed toward reforming the
Medicare home health care benefit, NAHC invests considerable resources in representing
the interests of non-Medicare providers. The name selection reflects the philosophy
that home care aide and hospice organizations are part of the greater universe
of home care. NAHC was designed to represent the interests of all providers offering
in-home, community-based, and supportive services.
NAHC's Form 990
Information about the National Association for Home Care and Hospice (NAHC), including
its Form 990, can be found on GuideStar. GuideStar, the leading source of information
on US nonprofits, is a searchable database of more than 1.7 million IRS-recognized
nonprofit organizations. www.guidestar.org
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