Strange Tony,
Humana's Q4 earnings call suggested our hospice may know about our new owners by April. CEO Bruce Broussard said:
...we are committed to advancing our plans to divest a majority interest in our hospice business as we are confident we can deliver the desired experiences and outcomes for patients transitioning for restorative care to hospice through partnership models.
We have continued to explore various alternatives for the long-term ownership structure of the business and have initiated steps to reorganize the hospice business for stand-alone operations while also making investments to improve clinician recruiting and retention to position the business for further growth. While we're not able to share details today on a specific transaction structure or timing, we expect that we will be in a position to provide a meaningful update by our first quarter call.
That means Kindred Hospice employees will not transition to Humana's richer benefits package. Broussard did not mention causes for clinician turnover, like not paying staff fairly for hours worked and miles driven. He omitted sorry Homecare Homebase which added hours of extra work (often done at home and off the clock), sent clinicians down senseless rabbit trails and made it exceedingly difficult to find pertinent information (as it could be in numerous places or not charted at all).
Humana purchased our hospice in June 2018 and promised no changes. It then cut the number of holidays by 25% and holiday pay by 33%. They jettisoned administrative and clinical hospice staff and instituted time eating work processes for those remaining. Our experienced hospice nurses left long ago.
Broussard admitted Humana had difficulty retaining hospice nurses they'd just hired.
We also reduced the number of nurses who attrit (quit) in the first 90 days of employment in the second half of 2021 for the first time since the pandemic began.
Before Humana destroyed our once great hospice we had nurses leave during the first 90 days of employment, mostly due to management painting a rosy picture and then not living up to what they'd sold.
Turnover went into the stratosphere in 2019. 2020 brought the pandemic which isolated staff from one another, making them more susceptible to torture from Mean Girl management.
What happens when management harms the quality of service while taking advantage of employees? Census goes down and down and down. In the earnings call Bruce noted hospice's declining volume for the last quarter and full year:
Fourth quarter 2021 home health admissions were up slightly while hospice experienced a low single-digit decline as compared to the fourth quarter of 2020. From a full year perspective, we have seen home health admissions up low single digits with hospice admissions down low single digits year-over-year. It is important to note that hospice volumes have been impacted by the higher mortality rates driven by COVID as well as lower post-acute facility volumes.
Hospice volumes have also been impacted by nurse turnover and lack of availability. Our hospice continued to take patients and overload the few clinical staff left but that turns into poor service and bad word of mouth.
Referral sources got the message that Humana did not care about serving customers. Hospice staff felt how little management cared for us. We saw executives focusing on enriching themselves while pretending technology would ameliorate the downstream impact of their greed.
While hospice volumes went down, margins remained robust. That's the money that does not go to employees. Humana's CFO said:
Hospice had slightly higher margins than the home health business, and those trends continue.
Four years ago a few of my hospice peers thought Humana and its financial rapscallion partners might make our hospice better. Some looked at Humana's retirement match and wondered how long before they would have such a benefit.
EMPLOYER CONTRIBUTION: 125% on up to 6% of employee 401(k) contributions
Humana dashed any misplaced hope. I expect similar treatment from our new owners. The question is how much money did Bruce Broussard make on our backs? We may never know.
Humana has begun a divestiture process in collaboration with Goldman Sachs, Axios reported Monday, noting that the information came from three different sources. The process is supposedly targeting private equity interests.Lord, deliver us from evil....that I pray.
Anonymous
I wonder if Advent International is interested?
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I was not aware of them. Thanks for steering me to look them up.
ReplyDeleteAccount Executive for Home Health indicated an increase in 401k match. Their Glassdoor review is below:
ReplyDeletePros
Steady paycheck, and good commissions if able to hit goal (which currently is almost impossible to do), 401k at least changed from 1% to 3% matching
Cons
Baselines are set too high considering the lack of clinical staffing and having to constantly decline referrals so it’s not realistic to hit goal, only receive credit for a couple of payor sources (1 of which only counts as half credit, so expect to do a lot of work that doesn’t count towards goal), keep increasing responsibilities so as your tied to your phone & computer for a majority of the time which decreases your opportunity to grow the business, no sick leave and PTO is pitiful, non existent maternity leave and no paternity leave , insurance is too costly, no cost of living raises, no Christmas bonuses (but you will get a company wide email from the CEO thanking you for your hard work so they can enjoy 3 weeks off with their family during the holidays)
Advice to Management
Set attainable goals and actual benefits to the job because you will not retain staff.
Former KAH employee said on Glassdoor: "Used to be great, needs drastic course correcting now."
ReplyDeletePros
Great co workers who care about what we do.
Cons
Corporate culture has changed, and is rather toxic.
Expectation is to over work small teams, without the labor or financial resources required to do their jobs. The managers that are the best to work for are rarely ever recognized while those who are clearly contributing to the culture shift are. Which means, it's intentional. Members of teams are left off corporate recognition, which also shows where heads are at. Department leads are often wonderful to work for, but disregarded in conversations around what their teams need. While more people to do the work is a commonly needed request, more middle management is commonly hired and added. So the resources for payroll are there, they just aren't prioritized well.
Pay isn't competitive, raises are sparse, and arrive long after promised. This often negating their value as raises that show appreciation for doing good work, as they just become multi year inflation adjustments. Especially now.
TLDR; Over worked, underpaid, unappreciated is the common feelings amongst workforce. The department heads are pretty great to work for and with, but middle management and executives don't show they are listening past platitudes.
Advice to Management
Listen to your department leads.
Humana slave said "Run":
ReplyDeleteIf you like working for micro managers and not having enough training, but are expected to do everything and then get written up for doing it wrong, this place is for you ! Favoritism is real here and communication is horrible . Worst place I ever worked .. RUN away from this place ! Turn over is so often because you either are going to quit or get fired .. that’s the only guarantee there .
Another Humana employee said "Very stressful job for the pay":
Very stressful job no work life balance very overwhelming constant schedule changes micro managed a lot of trainings micro manged have to reach unrealistic metrics
Pros
Great benefits
Cons
Micro managed, excessive trainings no raises, hard to get raises
Humana Inc said on Tuesday it has entered an agreement with activist hedge fund Starboard Value to name two independent directors to the health insurer's board.
ReplyDeleteThe agreement shows support for Humana's strategy of increasing market share in Medicare Advantage business, improving margins, accelerating growth in healthcare services and reducing operating expenses.
Bad news for regular folk, i.e. employees
Florida Patient Service Coordinator said:
ReplyDeleteI have done far more, for much less and never felt the stress I felt at this job. There’s too much favoritism so that leaves the door open for disrespect. The field staff are overworked and only the ones who complain enough get accommodations. In my almost two years here I’ve only received a raise of 40cents. What a joke. The PTO is a joke. The management tells field staff “There's no such thing as unpaid time off “ Are you kidding me??? So what is it then??? If you’re a PSC you’re not allowed overtime because apparently it’s “not in the contract” and management goes in and changes your payroll without your permission if they don’t agree with the pay or don’t think you actually have overtime. HR can’t be trusted. They will smile in your face then plot against you. They only look out for the Directors and up! They overwhelm the field staff then paint the picture as if it’s the Coordinators fault but the Coordinator has the least amount of say in the entire company so I’m not sure how that makes sense. This company is just trash. There’s no reason people should be texting my personal phone before 8 or after 5. They want to force you off of your phone when it’s convenient for them but want the field staff to call your personal phone at all types of hours!! I’ve seen 6 people leave this company in less than a year. It’s hideous. I wouldn’t recommend this company to a homeless person. Especially the Daytona Branch. Good riddance.
Pennsylvania KAH RN Case Manager said:
ReplyDeleteThere is virtually no social life with this job; you are a bound to your work even on your days off. You are expected to get charting done on the same day when it can take a good two hours to chart on each patient. You spend a full day seeing patients, traveling, contacting doctors, and answering emails. Then, when you come home, you are charting on your patients for a easy six hours. On your days off, they bother you or you are contacting patients to see them for the following work day. You are limited with what you can do on your days off if you have work the following day, because you have to contact the office to review your schedule as well as contact patients. Your schedule can be given to you and then change several times before you get a finalized list of patients you will be contacting. The stress level is high and management are typically too busy to talk to you when you are calling them about a concern with a patient.
Arizona RN said "Poor management" for KAH
ReplyDeleteNo support from clinical managers. Feels like company is mostly concerned about the bottom line. Pay is sub par to the going rates in this city. They hide their pay rate behind a point system. Make sure you get what you're getting. RN visit 48.. seriously?
Kindred Hospice RN in New Mexico said "Worst place I ever worked"
ReplyDeletePros
Pay was decent
When Humana bought out 401k matching improved
Cons
Poor communication
Management
Lack of structure
Caseloads
Terrible health insurance
Advice to Management
Find new branch leadership. They are 100% the problem. And despite what they have attempted to tell people. The mass exodus has zero to do with pay and everything to do with leadership. Happy employees do not look for other jobs.