The WSRCC is now the Adult Family Home Council.

The Washington State Residential Care Council has represented adult family homes for more than 20 years. This year we begin a new level of advocacy, education, member services, and marketing. We will do this with a new name. This new name better represents what we do and who we are. Our mission is to improve the lives and well-being of vulnerable adults through the support of adult family homes. We are a council of adult family homes, member driven and mission focused. We are the exclusively recognized representative of adult family homes.

Through this change we will remain dedicated to accomplishing for our members: Personalized member support for care,

regulatory, business, or other issues Online resources and education for members In person chapter meetings, education, and local

resources Marketing and awareness of the adult family

home option Fair Medicaid reimbursement rates for adult

family home providers Appropriate regulation and oversight that builds

a safe and high quality long term care system Our new website www.adultfamilyhomecouncil.org will include expanded member area for adult family homes to find resources, forms, policies and best practice guides. It will also include an improved adult family home locator tool. Members will be able to share current vacancies. The public will be able to search for adult family homes with available beds in their area. We believe these are some good first steps in improving the outreach between those seeking and those providing services. Please update our name in your contacts, and note the change in email address. Please also share this exciting change with those who work with adult family homes. If there are any questions or anything we can help you with, please do not hesitate to contact us!

Page 2

How to get your resident’s Long Term Care Insurance Policy (LTCI)

to pay for your Adult Family Home? By Bruce Bamford and John Ficker

Many members have expressed frustration or uncertainty about how to get a long term care insurance policy to pay for adult family home services. I enlisted a longtime friend and advocate for senior issues, Bruce Bamford to help explain what it takes. Because adult family homes are a unique setting, and only licensed in a handful of states, many national insurance companies may not recognize the term “adult family home” and reject the claim. This has led some providers to assume that LTCI will not pay for AFH services. However, if the policy has a section that states they will pay for assisted living, it is likely they will pay for AFH. From Bruce Bamford: With roughly 23 insurance companies selling LTCI, fewer than 20 % of all Long Term Care Policies will actually say yes under the ASSISTED LIVING clarification section in your policy. Why? because they are specific mostly to Washington State. They are called Adult Foster Homes in Oregon and some states do not have them at all. You are in GREAT shape if it is Indemnity policy vs a reimbursement as indemnity’s pay for almost anything if the client can prove they cannot do the 2 or 3 “ADL’s to get an actual claim. When UNUM was selling LTCI a decade ago their policies were often an Indemnity Policy. I asked Bruce if there was any specific language to look for in reviewing a resident’s policy. There was a big problem years ago as consumers just assumed they were covered, so the Office of the Insurance Commissioner made it mandatory for a few years that all companies who came out with a NEW LTCI policy had to be approved and had to put in the ASSSISTED LIVING section a YES or NO naming AFH’s. Unfortunately, today it is not mandatory, but there should be language in any newer policy that calls out if AFH services are covered. Are there any companies that already understand AFH services and always pay? Many years of research from company to company has come up with very few guaranteed. As prior, if it is an Indemnity or CASH policy vs Reimbursement you have a

90% chance. MedAmerica, TransAmerica, Unum, CNA and Fortis did 10 years ago, but they are older policies and some are not selling LTCI today. Genworth and Mutual of Omaha will not guarantee it and are both great policies but may pay at time of claim. We had to write Thrivent LTCI claims to get a yes or no for our file because we will not sell a policy from a company unless we know. They said “YES we will” so that is in the file. Any practical advice for working with the insurance company; #1, ask the agent who sold the policy to them. Test their knowledge and get them involved first. However, do not bank on the answer. The agent may not even know what an AFH is. #2, call the #800 number to the company CLAIMS DEPT and be prepared for a slew of different questions and answers. So I first look in the actual policy and read the ASSISTED LIVING explanation. If it says an Assisted Living is considered a facility with 10 beds or more, this answers it as a “NO” as AFH’s has a maximum of 6 beds. If I am on the phone with the CLAIMS department, I lead them to the DSHS ADULT FAMILY HOME FINDER on the DSHS web site. Then I tell my clients to get it in writing from the claims department. A particular company, and this seems hard to believe they can do this, says, “Move Mom in and then we can tell you once you file the claim, but we will not tell you before you move her!!! Grrrrrr! totally unbelievable. Resources for more information: If you get denials, and you think you should get approval from the insurance company, the most powerful tool is to file online to the Office of the Insurance Commissioner at https://fortress.wa.gov/oic/onlineservices/Unprotected/CC/ContactInfo.aspx?module=CC. They are really good to make the insurance company put in print their reasons. Bruce Bamford is the Owner/Broker of Bamford Long Term Care Financial Services LLC. For over 12 years now we have been teaching consumers how to go from age 40 to 90. Call us at 360-943-9698 for more information.

Page 3

Bed Handles Inc. Announces Recall of Adult Portable Bed

Handles This is a repeated announcement

since less Than 1% have responded to the recall and the risks to

residents include entrapment and strangulation hazards.

Click here for more information

Advocacy Update

Recently the Public Employee’s Relation Commission (PERC), which oversees our collective bargaining process, ruled on an unfair labor practice (ULP) filed between the state and the Adult Family Home Council. This ULP was related to a proposal from the AFH Council to provide additional compensation for AFH providers who serve residents that assessment states, and care plan requires a two person assist or awake staff night. The proposal also asked for reimbursement to providers who transport clients in accordance with the care plan. The transportation reimbursement includes both mileage and a trip fee to pay the additional staffing required to make the transportation available. The proposal also requested additional reimbursement for residents classified in C, D, or E categories of CARE when those residents exhibit mood and behavior issues. The final point of the proposal was to offer additional compensation to providers who serve 60% Medicaid occupancy. These issues were originally negotiated in summer of 2014. The state has claimed that these are not legitimate subjects that can be bargained. The AFH Council believes these are critical issues of fair economic compensation.

PERC ruled in favor of the AFH Council. This means we can negotiate for these add-on rates. The state can appeal the decision. This is an important victory in working toward our goal of fair rates that cover costs. In the meantime, if you have a resident that you feel meets these qualifications, I encourage you to request an ETR from your case manager and/or to contact the AFH Council for assistance.

Page 4

Adult Family Home Counci’s Affiliate Business Partner Profile

Page 5

The New Adult Family Home Council Website is Ready!

Along with the change in the name, the Adult Family Home Council’s website has changed. The new site is designed to better serve our members and to assist the general public in locating adult family homes. Members are encouraged to register on the new web site. Once a member has completed the registration process, and membership has been verified, they will be able to access several exciting resources.

First, members will be able to access the Adult Family Home Council’s online library of forms, sample policies, publications, and best practice guides. Providers can search the forms library in order to find documents relevant to their needs. For example, if searching for information, policies, or rules related to the use of bed rails, simply search the term “bed rails” to find what is available.

If the search for policies do not yield the results needed to answer your questions, members can send direct questions to Adult Family Home Council staff to get more information. Members will also be able to communicate with one another through an online forum. The forum is a place where all logged in members can ask questions to one another and discuss issues related to anything from meal planning to the hiring and managing staff. The Adult Family Home Council staff will monitor the forum conversation to ensure the accuracy of the information provided.

Perhaps the most important feature of the new web site, is that members can log in to the site and create a profile for their adult family home. Members will be able to upload photos of their home, write a brief description, add contact and website links, and add vacancies in their home.

The public will be able to use this site to search for available beds in their community. The Adult Family Home Council will then promote this site to the various referral sources, such as discharge planners and social workers. We hope this new tool will support our members in keeping their beds filled and help the general public to find the right placement for their needs.

Page 6

The annual two day conference held by the Adult Family Home Council is the largest event of the year. A total of 338 attendees came from Adult Family Homes all over Washington State to participate. This year 12 continuing education credits were provided, through educational seminars. The conference also includes a vendor showcase, raffles, silent auction; and a presentation by John Ficker, Adult Family Home Council’s Executive Director, about the state of the AFH industry. Several members of the Washington State legislature were in attendance to learn more about adult family homes, including the co-chair of the Aging and Disability Joint Legislative Executive Committee, Senator Barbara Bailey. Seminars were held in three different rooms, with a large variety of seminar topics. Thirty one educators with expertise in the fields of small business operations, care planning, nursing, and AFH licensing requirements were on hand over the two days. Attendees had some difficult choices to make. Many of the educators were willing to stay past the ending time of their seminars, in order to be as informative to our conference attendees as possible. Special thanks to Bennetta Shoop, RCS Region 2 Field Manager, and Amena Jones, Program Manager,

Residential Inspection and QA Program, BAAU, for staying many hours beyond their scheduled seminars to answer questions about AFH regulatory oversight, and licensing process. Many of the experts providing training this year were from state agencies or agencies that partner with the Adult Family Home Council; hearing directly from the leadership staff at these agencies was a highly valued experience. Residential Care Services and Home and Community Services taught about the regulatory oversight process, and how to initiate an appropriate resident discharge. The Department of Health explained the Home Care Aide credentialing process. Representatives from the Developmental Disabilities Administration taught about how best to communicate with residents and how to deal with problem behaviors when supporting residents. Attendees learned how best to support residents with brain injuries in classes conducted by BIAWA (Brain Injury Association of WA). Excellent trainings on reducing medication errors, and non-pharmacological interventions to difficult behaviors, were provided by one of our Affiliate Business Partner’s Mercury Pharmacy. And, as in past years, the Adult Family

Home Nurses Association (AFHNA) taught about solving unique problems in the AFH with their course Risky Scenarios 2015. AFHNA also shared their newly developed strategy, and forms, for successful transfer strategies when your AFH residents go in or out of the hospital. If you are looking for more information about any of the trainers or seminars from the 2015 Adult Family Home Council conference, please contact Susan Zarenski at susan@adultfamilyhomecouncil.org We can provide seminar handouts to you electronically, or give you contact information for the trainers. We hope to see you at the 2016 Fall Conference on October 20 & 21, 2016.

In the meantime, some of the comments we received on attendee evaluations this year are noted on page 7.

Adult Family Home Council’s 2015 Conference a Huge Success!

Page 7

“As always thank you very very much, John, Maria & Bryon & Susan for all your support and hard work to make Adult Family Homes a successful industry. Everything is good- from set up, to classes, to food. Thank you once again.” -- AFH Owner

“I’ve enjoyed attending these conferences and feel they are highly valuable to me & my business. Thank You!” – AFH Owner

“I’m a regular yearly attendee and I loved it, learning more info about our industry, and meeting old & new faces is exciting too! Thank you very much!” – AFH Manager “This is an excellent

conference for us AFH Providers- a lot of important topics. Kudos to you all!” —AFH Owner

“Excellent facility!! Easy access, clean, helpful staff, food decisions. Adult Family Home Council are extremely helpful and approachable! Thank You.” – AFH Owner, First Time Conference Attendee

Page 8

Steps to Help You Stop Smoking By Maria Michas, MD, MPH, FACOEM - Medical Director for Molina Healthcare of WA

As you know, smoking is bad for your health. It weakens your bones, lungs and immune system, increases your risk of heart disease and stroke, and can lead to cancer, blindness and early death. In fact, every day, about 1,300 Americans die for reasons related to smoking.* It isn’t easy to walk away from cigarettes. Nicotine is a chemical in cigarettes that makes you addicted to smoking. Once addicted, if your body does not get nicotine, you may feel uncomfortable and crave cigarettes. But millions of people have stopped smoking and you can be one of them! While some smokers quit by going cold turkey, most do better with a plan. Here are 5 steps to help you quit smoking. Step 1: Set a quit date Choose a date within the next two weeks, so you have time to prepare. Step 2 Tell family and friends Explain to family and friends that you’re quitting and ask for their support. Chances are, they’ll be happy to help. Look for a quit buddy who also wants to stop smoking and support one another Step 3: Commit to a strategy A plan helps you stay motivated and focused. Ask your doctor for help. Your doctor can prescribe medicine to help you quit. Try a Stop Smoking Program – Molina Healthcare offers one free to members. Or call 800-QUIT NOW.

Step 4: Avoid triggers and replace unhealthy behavior Throw out your cigarettes, lighters, ashtrays and matches. Spend time with non-smokers, in places where smoking is not allowed. If you have a craving, call a supportive friend or do something healthy such as go see a movie, exercise, or chew carrots or gum. Take a deep breath and remind yourself why you want to stop smoking. Step 5: Take it one day at a time Don’t focus on forever – pay attention to right now. Concentrate on not smoking from the time you wake up until you go to sleep. Think of all the important reasons you’re quitting and congratulate yourself on getting healthier. You can do this and you deserve to feel your best!

*U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Smoking—50 Years of Progress: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2014.

Page 9

Upcoming AFH Administrator Classes

Highline College will be offering the AFH Administrator

course on the dates below:

February 2- March 8

Classes are held on Tuesdays from 6:00P-9:00P & Satur-

days from 8:00A-3:00P

Class is located at Highline College, Building 99/Room

132

Students can register online at ce.highline.edu or call

206-870-3785

Thank you,

Justin Farris, CPP

Program Manager-Continuing Education

jfarris@highline.edu

(206) 592-3440

Winter AFH Administrator Classes at SPSCC.

Monday January 11th – Wednesday February 24th.

Monday and Wednesday evenings (with two classes on

Tuesday because of Monday holidays)

5:00 pm-8:30pm

We are also newly located at 4220 6th AVE SE Lacey,

WA 98503

Jennifer Carter

Director for Professional Development & Consulting

South Puget Sound Community College

Corporate & Continuing Education

4220 6th AVE SE

Lacey, WA 98503

360-709-2005

jcarter@spscc.edu

Clark College will be offering the AFH Administrator

course on the dates below:

February 18- March 4, 2016

Classes are held on Thursdays and Fridays from

8:00A-5:30P.

Class is located at Clark College, Building CCE/

Room 210

Students can register online at Clark College or call

360-992-2939

Contact: Jennifer Ward

1933 Fort Vancouver Way

Vancouver, WA 98663

Get directions

Phone: (360) 992-2484

Fax: (360) 992-2883

Email: jward@clark.edu

North Seattle College will be offering the AFH

Administrator course on the dates below:

January 12 - February 23 - Classes are held on Tuesdays

and Thursdays from 5:30P-9:30P

OR

February 27 - March 20 Saturday and Sunday from 9:30a

- 3:30p

Class is located at North Seattle College

9600 College Way North

Seattle, Washington 98103

(206) 934-3600

https://northseattle.edu/admissions/steps

Questions: Contact cathy.hakola@seattlecolleges.edu 206-934-3920

Page 10

WSRCC’s Affiliate Business Partner Profile

Do You Need ProviderOne Help?

My name is Kristina Sparks. I opened my business because when I worked at BASS I really loved my job and I was very good at it. It made me feel wonderful at the end of the day with solving problems and getting the providers paid!!! When we were told we were going to close I was in tears with the providers wondering what they were going to do. The Health Care Authority now provides the service that BASS used to do. When I decided to establish my business, I called it CTR Services. "Choose the Right Services" I offer full service billing. Providers have to do nothing but get paid!! I want to be a part of making providers successful with their businesses because when they are successful, I am successful! My fees are fair and I give 110% to make sure the providers are paid successfully. I am available nights and weekends because I know providers are busy during the day and look forward to assisting more providers. I will also provide a 10% discount to all Adult Family Home Council Members! Please feel free to contact me via phone or email.

Page 11

Page 12

Free DDA Hosted Continuing Education Courses in November/December

Page 13

Buy * Sell * Trade Adult Famiy Home Council Members Marketplace Page

Place an ad on this page in our next issue

Live-In Manager Wanted at AFH in Ocean Park, WA

Adult Family Home in Ocean Park, Wa currently interviewing for position of live- in manager. Position to start after January 2016. Potential manager must have current certification for LTC worker or CNA, 48 administration class, plus MH and DD Specialty training.

Please Call Jackie Campbell, Little Yellow House AFH, at (360) 665-3223

AFH for Sale in Lake Stevens, WA

We're retiring. Walk in and you're in business. Everything stays right down to the silverware. We are licensed for 6 but have never housed more that 5 residents. Friendly Lake Stevens neighborhood, close to a fire station and lot's of shopping. The house has 7 bedrooms, extensive landscaping, raised vegetable garden, big deck in front and patio in back. The house is listed at $325,000 and will appraise for more. Business is listed at $125,000. Current income is $522/day. We will offer extensive resident specific training and long term consultation.

425-334-2730/425-445-4306.

Established AFH For Sale in Yakima, WA

Adult Family Home For Sale in Yakima, WA

Licensed for 6 clients, currently full. Business up and running nicely. Asking $175,000 for business and take over lease on house of $1,500 a month. For pictures and more details email me at bogwon1961@q.com or call me at 509-833-0748.

WANTED!

Manager for Adult Family Home in Yelm, WA. Position includes caregiving. Can be evenings or days. Also can be a live-in position. Call Sophie @ 360-951-3735

AFH For Sale in Rural Port Orchard, WA

Licensed for 5 beds (space to grow) sits on 2.2 acres, large gambrel roof garage completely finished inside. Home in business 15 years with mainly DD Specialty. Call Richard for details @ cell # 360.981.3271.

This Code of Ethics for Adult Family Home Providers has been developed as a guide for carrying out provider responsibilities in a manner consistent with professional values and moral standards which define the essentials of honorable behavior for the Adult Family Home Provider.

As Adult Family Home Providers we want the public to acknowledge us as professionals. Part of this process is to develop a system of ethical codes of conduct and standards of practice that incorporate our principles and values regarding quality care. Through their Associations and working with fellow members:

An Adult Family Home Provider recognizes and respects the dignity of residents without consideration for race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, social or economic status.

An Adult Family Home Provider, while honoring the residents’ rights to self determination, will promote and protect the rights of all their residents.

An Adult Family Home Provider is responsible and accountable for their individual practice and determining how they deliver optimum care to their residents.

An Adult Family Home Provider acknowledges the responsibility to protect their own integrity, maintain competence in their field, and continue their personal and professional growth.

An Adult Family Home Providers will promote their profession with continued education and political action in shaping the WACs and rules that govern their profession.

Code of Ethics for Adult Family Home Providers

SAVE THE DATE!

2016 Annual Conference!

OCTOBER 20 & 21, 2016

TULALIP RESORT & CASINO

Your Adult Family Home Council Team

Del Miles ~ Board President w2godiving@charter.net - (509) 728-1484

John Ficker ~ Executive Director john@adultfamilyhomecouncil.org - (360) 754-3329

Maria Chiechi ~ Executive Assistant & Legislative Coordinator maria@adultfamilyhomecouncil.org - (360) 754-3329

Susan Zarenski ~ Member Services/Education Specialist susan@adultfamilyhomecouncil.org - (360) 754-3329 Bryon Dahl ~ Office Manager bryon@adultfamilyhomecouncil.org - (360) 754-3329

523 Pear Street SE, Olympia, WA 98501 Toll Free - 1-888-439-8999

Fax - 360-943-6653 www.adultfamilyhomecouncil.org