Bluebird Local Nursing

22/05/2025

A whole week just for us!?! Photos from our Bluebird Nurses Week celebration.

06/05/2025

Celebrating the heart of healthcare today. Happy Nurses Week! 💙

01/05/2025

Some much needed Doggo therapy with Nurse Danielle.

24/03/2025

We’re proud to have a leadership team with decades of combined experience in nursing and healthcare. When people who’ve spent years on the front lines come together, real solutions happen. Grateful for the dedication, insight, and heart this team brings every day. 💙

23/02/2025

The most consistent thing about insurance home health agencies? Turnover. If we want to talk about government inefficiencies, maybe we should look at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

1. Drastic Cuts in Medicare Reimbursements
• Many home health agencies have been forced to turn away patients or shut down entirely because they can no longer afford to provide services under the reduced rates.

2. Excessive Administrative Burdens and Compliance Costs
Bureaucratic red tape forces providers to:
• Spend hours on paperwork rather than patient care.
• Navigate complex billing systems that often result in delayed or denied payments.

3. Workforce Crisis: Lack of Skilled Home Health Workers
The CMS payment cuts have led to severe workforce shortages in the home health sector:
• Many skilled nurses and aides have left due to low wages, heavy workloads, and lack of support.

4. Shift Toward Institutionalized Care Rather Than Home Care
Despite the proven benefits of home care, CMS has redirected funding towards institutional care (nursing homes, hospitals) rather than allowing patients to receive cost-effective home-based care. This shift:
• Increases overall Medicare spending due to higher hospital readmission rates.
• Forces patients who prefer home care into nursing facilities against their wishes.
• Contradicts CMS's own value-based care model, which aims to reduce hospitalizations and support aging at home.

5. Medicare Advantage Plans Are Limiting Access
CMS has given Medicare Advantage (MA) plans significant control over home health benefits, allowing private insurers to:
• Deny or delay care for cost-saving reasons.
• Reduce coverage for essential services like skilled nursing or therapy.
• Force patients into higher-cost care settings, such as hospitals or skilled nursing facilities.

Conclusion
CMS’s bureaucratic inefficiencies and policy failures have pushed home health care to the brink of collapse. Unless major reforms are implemented, the ability of seniors and disabled individuals to receive care at home—where they prefer to be—will continue to decline. The home health crisis is not just a funding issue; it’s a health equity and quality-of-life issue that requires urgent attention from policymakers.

The Argument for Private Care – Bluebird Local Nursing

Fast and efficient care keeps you safe and comfortable at home. Your health cannot wait for authorizations or waiting lists. A few short visits of high-quality, focused care can prevent serious complications or rehospitalization. Avoid greater stress, costs, and health deterioration by choosing timely skilled care.

A strong healthcare system supports both patients and providers. Bluebird Local Nursing prioritizes work-life balance, reducing burnout and turnover. Customer service is greatly improved by deeper nurse-patient relationships and continuity of care. The goal is simple: keep people at home, where they want to be, with reliable, compassionate, and skilled care tailored to their needs.

08/02/2025

19/01/2025

Our Collapsing Healthcare System and the Case for Concierge Care

Ask any home health nurse, and she will tell you the truth: the home health industry is on life support. Over the past two decades, Medicare home health reimbursement rates have faced devastating cuts, with a cumulative reduction of 20-30%. These reductions have led to the near-total collapse of insurance-based home care, leaving countless patients without access and droves of nurses leaving the bedside in frustration and heartbreak. Unable to watch the decline in care quality, many nurses have chosen other paths, advanced degrees, alternative fields, or careers.

The rise of concierge care represents a beacon of hope in an otherwise failing system. This model prioritizes fast, effective, and direct care by cutting out the middleman—eliminating delays, denials, and inefficiencies of traditional insurance-based care. Nurses and clinicians are returning to the bedside within these new models, empowered to focus on their patients rather than navigating endless bureaucracy.

What does the future hold? Concierge and cash-pay models have the potential to redefine the patient experience by providing clear pricing and a direct understanding of services. This approach fosters trust and empowers individuals to take control of their healthcare decisions, eliminating confusion and hidden costs so common in insurance-based systems. As we navigate these challenges as caregivers and patients, the transparency and personalization of concierge care offers a promising path forward.

A little light reading for those who have made it this far:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/new-healthcare-model-case-catastrophic-coverage-cash-pay-james-barlia-nkkue/?trk=public_post

https://www.union-bulletin.com/news/national/healthcare-insurance-policies-fuel-crisis-the-silent-killer-of-home-care-agencies/article_03b3a574-e3ec-5c91-b571-b1c8792542ab.html

https://prospect.org/familycare/the-collapse-of-long-term-care-insurance/

01/11/2024

Wish you could find a Bluebird RN in your area? Interested in learning more about concierge care? Let us recommend our trusted partner and super connector Courtney Hogenson RN, CMC, ALNC.

🌟 Hi! I'm Courtney Hogenson, the heart behind Call Light. As an RN with decades of experience, I’m dedicated to empowering families and nurses in the healthcare space. 💙 My journey focuses on advocacy, elder care, concierge nursing, and mentoring nurse entrepreneurs to make a meaningful difference in patients' lives.

🌱 My mission? To positively impact lives! From elder care management to personalized home care, I’m driven by compassion and high-quality care.

At Call Light, I advocate for concierge nursing, fostering deeper connections between nurses and patients. 🤝 I help families create care management plans that ensure dignity and independence for their loved ones.

✨ I’m passionate about mentoring nurses looking to break into entrepreneurship, guiding them to start their own businesses and become community leaders.

Ready to take control of your loved one’s care or explore building your own nursing business? I’m here to guide you every step of the way! 🌈

Courtney Hogenson, RN

01/11/2024

🎉 Teamwork makes the dream work! Cheers to three years with the Bluebird crew! Thanks for all you do, and for making the work day more fun and meaningful. 💙