VNS Health in 2022 — Year in Review
January
MSO is launched. On January 1st, VNS Health launches its newest line of business, a Management Services Organization (MSO), which offers cost-effective solutions that deliver top-quality outcomes for health plan members while simplifying the healthcare experience for all. The MSO‘s launch represents an important new chapter for VNS Health, allowing expansion into other markets—and states!
“20 Minutes with Dan” is rolled out. On January 12th, “20 Minutes with Dan” debuts, offering all of the excitement and information of the previous 30-minute editions in a shorter 20-minute video format. You can find all of the “20 Minutes with Dan” episodes here.
NYS expands vaccine mandate. As the Omicron variant surges, New York State expands its vaccine mandate for health care workers to include COVID-19 vaccine boosters. To ensure we comply with the mandate, VNS Health helps impacted team members get boosted.
HR rolls out People & Culture Strategy. The launch this month of VNS Health’s People & Culture Strategy goes on to include the implementation in April of a number of new teams, or Centers of Expertise (CoEs)—Culture & Inclusion, People Support, Talent & Learning, and Total Rewards—to enhance the employee experience and execute on VNS Health’s strategy. Later in the year, HR Systems begins reporting directly to Chief People Officer Tracy Dodd and becomes our fifth Center of Expertise.
February
Personal Care receives Provider of Choice Award from Home Care Pulse. VNS Health’s Personal Care team receives a 2022 Best of Home Care–Provider of Choice Award from Home Care Pulse for meeting/exceeding benchmark satisfaction scores based on high ratings from clients and/or caregivers.
Home Care receives 4-Star CMS rating. VNS Health Home Care—our certified home health agency—receives its first-ever 4-Star rating from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Based on patient-care ratings in nine different quality categories, the 4-Star rating indicates VNS Health Home Care is performing better than average, compared to the thousands of certified home health care agencies across the U.S. This score is especially impressive because it reflects Home Care’s performance in early 2021, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and its inherent challenges.
Home health aides begin using HHAX App. One of VNS Health’s top company OKRs in 2022 – continuing in 2023 – is to deliver healthcare solutions that are simple to understand, easy to access, and meaningful in outcomes. The Home Health Aide Exchange (HHAx) app helps meet that goal by providing an all-in-one solution for case referrals, scheduling, mobile applications, human resources, and compliance. The app provides easy access to all information in one simple place on a HHA’s smartphone, as well as a streamlined scheduling system that makes it easy for HHAs to directly accept cases.
VNS Health Receives $12M in Public Funding to Bolster HHA Hiring and Retention. To meet the growing demand for in-home care, VNS Health got a boost to its recruitment of home health aides with the help of $12 million in public funding from the American Rescue Plan, which provides states across the country with additional Medicaid dollars to support the hiring, training and retention of HHAs.
March
Kudos to the first five graduates of VNS Health’s Nurse Residency Program! The five pioneering members of the first cohort graduate from VNS Health’s Home Care’s Nurse Residency Program, a comprehensive, two-year program that helps make the growing field of home-care nursing more accessible to new nurses.
“Inside Keith Patterson’s Head” videos provide financial insights. In the third and final episode of “Inside Keith Patterson’s Head,” Chief Financial Officer Keith Patterson takes a deep dive into VNS Health’s financials, the forces behind the organization’s growth, and the inner workings of financial forecasting.
March is National Social Work Month! “20 Minutes with Dan” celebrates the month – and our amazing social work team – with a special Social Work Month edition. To view, click here.
Lean Six Sigma Green Belts complete training. Under the supervision of Senior Vice President of Quality and Performance Improvement Tony Dawson, 20 team members complete a six-month course that prepares them to become certified as Lean Six Sigma Green Belts. During the course, participants learn critical thinking and managerial skills as they develop solutions to complex issues that will ultimately improve the customer experience for our patients, members and clients.
April
Home Care earns 4.5 Stars from CMS. In their April 2022 quarterly home-health-agency quality ratings update, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) awards VNS Health Home Care a whopping 4.5 out of 5 Stars, our highest rating ever! The rating improves on Home Care’s strong showing in the previous quarter, when the team received its first-ever 4-Star rating from CMS.
CHAP Survey takes place. Eight surveyors from Community Health Accreditation Partners (CHAP) conducted a full survey of our Home Care, Hospice Care and Personal Care Private Care Services. Overall, VNS Health did very well for a program of our size: The surveyors reported they were impressed with all we do, how we function as a team, and how we coordinate care.
HHA Teresita Carter goes to Washington. VNS Health home health aide Teresita Carter attends a special event at the White House to celebrate the 12th anniversary of the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Teresita, who benefits directly from the ACA’s expanded access to health insurance, represents local 1199SEIU union at the event.
VNS Health celebrates National Volunteer Week. During National Volunteer Week, VNS Health honors the 351 volunteers who support our mission by donating their services to programs throughout the organization.
Occupational Therapist of the Year is named. OT Marjorie Delva is named VNS Health’s Occupational Therapist of the Year. The award is presented at VNS Health’s first-ever Occupational Therapy Month Celebration event on April 28th.
Military Veterans Alliance ERG added. This employee resource group is dedicated to team members who served in the military and their families. To learn more about this ERG and others at VNS Health, click here.
May
A Historic Day for VNS Health. May 18th, 2022 will go down as a landmark day in VNS Health history. Here’s just some of what happened that day:
- Visiting Nurse Service of New York (VNSNY) officially changes its name and branding to VNS Health.
- Our consumer advertising campaign for the rebrand kicks off, introducing VNS Health to the New York community.
- To celebrate our new name and branding, the 3rd floor terrace of our 220 East 42nd Street office is host to wonderful performances by musicians from the different neighborhoods of New York City—building on the theme of our consumer advertising, which is: We’re more than just a health care team; we’re your neighbors.
VNS Health rebrand gets wide media coverage. The press release announcing our rebranding as VNS Health reaches a potential audience of more than 145 million, with 226 outlets, including Associated Press, Kaiser Health News, Yahoo! Finance, and other leading media picking up the release. In addition, feature stories appear in Home Care News, McKnight’s Home Care, Hospice News, Home Care Magazine, The Bronx Voice, and other targeted media outlets.
Inspiring stories mark National Nurses Month. In recognition of National Nurses Week and Month, WPIX11 News airs an inspiring television segment about VNS Health behavioral health nurse Laura Lau and the vital support she provided to a cancer patient. And as a special Nurses Month highlight, Frontline features profiles of the longest-serving nurses in each part of the organization. Click here to read the story.
May is also Better Hearing and Speech Month! To celebrate, VNS Health holds a special event to honor its speech language pathologists, where Tara Hantman is presented with the organization’s first-ever Speech Language Pathologist of the Year Award. Frontline also recognizes our SLPs with “A Day in the Life of Speech Language Pathologist, Whitney Thomas.” To read the article, click here.
Golf outing returns in person. After two years on the sidelines, VNS Health’s annual Golf Classic is back as a full-scale, in-person event. Held on May 23rd at the Wykagyl Country Club in New Rochelle, New York, the outing raises over $290,000 for VNS Health’s Veterans Program—a record-breaking amount. To see photos of the event, click here.
June
Culture & Inclusion: VNS Health Women’s ERG launches. The Women’s ERG (Employee Resource Group) is focused on empowerment and inclusion of women at VNS Health and aims to be a place for women to have an intentional opportunity for connection and support. If you’re interested in joining, please click here.
Community Mental Health Services gets a new name: Behavioral Health. To more accurately represent the work its teams do and to better align with industry standard terminology, Community Mental Health Services (CMHS) is officially renamed Behavioral Health. In addition to gaining a new name, Behavioral Health transforms its structure to allow for more agile and dynamic growth as programs are expanded and more closely integrated with other services as One VNS Health.
Notable Recognitions & Events feature is rolled out. To help reduce the number of emails that team members receive, Frontline introduces Notable Recognitions & Events. The Friday morning communication, which goes out nearly every week, announces the organization’s latest new hires, promotions, awards and upcoming events.
SelectHealth achieves top quality scores. The New York State Department of Health’s 2020-2021 Quality Incentive Program, which compares the performance of New York State’s three HIV Special Needs Plans (SNPs), reports that VNS Health’s SelectHealth plan has the highest overall performance rating for the second year in a row.
VNS Health hosts Juneteenth event. VNS Health’s virtual Juneteenth commemorative event features guest speaker Dr. CarolAnn Daniel, Professor of Social Policy and Director of Diversity and Inclusion at Adelphi University. Dr. Daniel’s presentation on the Legacy of Juneteenth receives great feedback from VNS Health team members.
2022 Liota and Marren Award Winners are announced. Nominated by their VNS Health colleagues and selected by a committee of nursing leaders, John Tawiah and Natasha Merjuste are named the winners of the 2022 Liota Award and Marren Award, respectively. John, a psychiatric nurse on the Bronx Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) team, is presented with the Marilyn Liota Award to Promote Cultural Diversity in Nursing Leadership, and Natasha, who is an Intake Clinical Manager in Business Development, receives the Joan Marren Leadership Award to Promote Evidence-Based Practice and Quality Improvement. To learn more, click here.
VNS Health team members participate in NYC Pride March 2022. 100-plus VNS Health Pride marchers—along with our “We’re Your Neighbors” VNS Health float—are met with loud and enthusiastic cheers from the tens of thousands who line this year’s NYC Pride March route. To watch the video, click here below.
VNSNY-branded scrubs are sent to Ukraine. Unused VNSNY-branded scrubs, gowns, masks, isolation gowns, and other garments and gear are donated to Ukraine to help the people there, as they face the horrible realities of war.
July
“Your Voice” Employee Survey introduced. The revamped Employee Survey, titled “Your Voice,” launches with the goal of providing deeper insight into the employee experience of VNS Health team members and how that experience can be enhanced. To learn more and to see the survey results and related action plans, click here.
WPIX11 features a therapy dog named Chicken. This inspiring news story features VNS Health Hospice Care volunteer Ellen Landress-Bowkett and her partner, Chicken, the therapy dog.
Strategy Video posted: Where will VNS Health be in 5 years? In this 10-minute video, David Rosales, EVP and Chief Strategy Officer, clearly explains VNS Health’s strategic plan—including where the organization is headed, what is being planned, and why.
People Manager trainings get underway. HR launches a new interactive Leading People & Culture training experience for people leaders, helping them be the best leaders they can be, which benefits all team members.
August
CCSS One-Stop “Hub” launches. The Contact Center Shared Services begins implementing a new Customer Relationship Management platform—or CRM—which the CCSS team has named “The Hub.” This platform puts data from nine different software systems into a single application so our CCSS team members can view information from all nine systems without having to switch back and forth from screen to screen—saving time and improving the consumer experience. To learn more about the Hub, watch this episode of “20 Minutes with Dan.”
Courageous Conversations Podcast Series with Tracy Dodd debuts. This new podcast series, hosted by VNS Health’s Chief People Officer, is a safe place where VNS Health team member voices are heard. In each podcast, Tracy and VNS Health team members have serious, no-holding-back conversations. To see all series episodes to date, click here.
VNS Health’s Research Center releases pandemic preparedness study. The Center for Home Care Policy & Research releases a study examining the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on home health aides—a study in which many VNS Health HHAs participated. To read a summary of the study, click here.
September
CEO Zooms introduced. Dan Savitt’s bi-monthly half-hour CEO Conference Calls evolve into one monthly, hour-long Zoom meetings to provide a more personal, interactive and visual experience for team members who attend. The CEO Zooms focus on topics that showcase one of our top company OKRs: Deliver healthcare solutions that are simple to understand, easy to access, and meaningful in outcomes.
VNS Health’s Dr. Jovita Crasta and the Behavioral Health Team receive Caritas Medal. The Caritas Medal from St. John’s University is given to Behavioral Health for their intensive mobile treatment programs that “bring frontline, humane health care to high-risk homeless clients” and “provide individualized care to clients no matter the setting, be it on the street or in a subway station, if necessary.”
Impact Challenge marks one-year anniversary. The Impact Challenge launched one year ago, and since that time the five finalist teams have made significant progress on their projects to reduce heath disparities in our communities. To catch up on each of the initiatives, click here.
October
VNS Health Medicare Advantage Plans earn highest CMS rating in NYC and Long Island! For the second year in a row, VNS Health Medicare earns a rating of 4.5 out of 5 Stars from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). No other Medicare Advantage plan in New York City or Long Island received 4.5 Stars in the latest ratings, making VNS Health the top-ranked Medicare Advantage payer in these areas. While the rating is given to VNS Health Medicare as a whole, it applies to all three VNS Health Medicare Advantage plans—VNS Health EasyCare, VNS Health EasyCare Plus and VNS Health Total—for 2023. To read more, click here.
Personal Care Honor Awards are back in person. For the first time in two years, the 2022 Personal Care Honor Awards are held in person. On Monday evening, October 10th, VNS Health team members gather at the Westin Hotel, next door to our 220 East 42nd Street office, to recognize the outstanding achievements and dedication of VNS Health’s entire Personal Care team, and in particular to honor the recipients of the various 2022 Personal Care Honor Awards. Also honored at the ceremony are Personal Care employees celebrating milestone anniversaries with the organization. Watch this inspiring video tribute to VNS Health’s amazing HHAs here.
VNS Health email addresses undergo rebrand. On Saturday, October 22, an important step in our VNS Health rebrand occurs when all team members email addresses switch from vnsny.org to vnshealth.org. The transition, which was months in the planning, is a big success. Kudos to the IT team for making it all happen so seamlessly!
VNSNY CHOICE becomes VNS Health Health Plans. As part of VNS Health’s rebrand, the shift of most of the organization’s Medicare and Medicaid health plans to their new VNS Health branding officially takes place in October to coincide with Medicare’s annual open enrollment period (the exception being SelectHealth, which changed its name to VNS Health SelectHealth in July). The plans are now known collectively as VNS Health Health Plans.
VNS Health HELPS Tool launch is featured in Home Health Care News. In October, Home Health Care News features VNS Health’s new, data-driven HELPS tool, which uses an evidence-based algorithm to help health plans’ care management teams assign an appropriate amount of Personal Care Services (PCS) to their members with unmatched speed and reliability. Click here to read the article.
Celebrating Physical Therapy Month—and our PT of the Year, Simon Chan.
On Thursday, October 27th, VNS Health hosts an in-person (and online) event to honor our amazing 250-plus physical therapists and physical therapy assistants. At the event, Physical therapist Simon Chan, a 26-year VNS Health veteran, receives the 2022 Physical Therapy Professional of the Year Award. (For more about Simon, and a peek at a day in his busy life, click here.) See here below for the video played at the event.
CEO Dan Savitt named a Power Player in health care. For the second year in a row, President and CEO Dan Savitt is recognized by PoliticsNY and amNY Metro as one of this year’s Power Players in Health Care—a recognition of “extraordinary individuals with a deep and enduring commitment to improving health outcomes for all New Yorkers.” Click here to read a brief PoliticsNY interview with Dan.
November
VNS Health takes on the care management of high-risk Healthfirst members. VNS Health begins partnering with Healthfirst, New York State’s largest not-for-profit health insurer, to provide intensive services to support some of Healthfirst’s highest-need members. Under the program, VNS Health will be managing the care of 1,600 chronically ill Healthfirst plan members through our Care Management Organization’s long-term care management program.
My Home Care app rolls out to Home Care patients. With this new app, home care patients simply have to tap on their smartphones to see exactly when their next visit from a VNS Health nurse, rehab therapist or social worker will take place. They can also use the app to view other upcoming scheduled VNS Health visits and receive important messages about these visits.
111 team members nominated, 10 winners named. It’s the ESPRIT Awards! Representing teams from across the organization, 111 team members were nominated for this year’s ESPRIT Awards, which are presented to team members who embody VNS Health’s Core Values of Empathy, Integrity, and Agility. Of those 111 nominees, 10 winners are selected and honored on November 22nd, at a special ESPRIT Award ceremony at the Westin New York Grand Central Hotel, right next to our 220 East 42nd Street office. Read profiles of the 10 awardees and see the names of all the nominees.
2022 Strength from Within Campaign begins. VNS Health’s annual employee giving campaign, which raises funds from employees to support our charitable care and community programs, is now in full swing. To find out how you can donate, please click here.
VNS Health Gala raises $1.2 Million for our Charitable Care and Community Benefit Programs. VNS Health’s 2022 Benefit, “The Future of Care. The Comfort of Home.” is our first in-person gala since 2019 and our first as VNS Health. Attended by 500 guests at the Ziegfeld Ballroom, the event is a terrific success, raising $1.2 million for our Charitable Care and Community Benefit programs. Emceed by PIX11 news anchor Kori Chambers, the evening is highlighted by the presentation of our Lillian D. Wald Award to Eugenie F. Doyle, MD, Board Member Emerita, and Stephen A. Warnke, Partner, Ropes & Gray LLP. See the photos here.
New ERGs added. Three new ERGs (Employee Resource Groups) are launched: Black, People of Color and Asian American and Pacific Islander. To learn more and to find out how you can join these ERGs, click here.
Speakers Bureau launched. To help centralize and leverage VNS Health team member expertise for making presentations to health care industry professionals as well as to individuals living in the communities we serve, VNS Health introduces Speakers Bureau, which will be spearheaded by Ann Mary Ferrie, Melissa Henry and Rhonda Soberman.
Inclusion@VNS Health team announces new personal information options in Workday. Diversity, inclusion, equity, and belonging are a critical part of the VNS Health culture, and are also the cornerstone of our Inclusion Strategy, a key component of our People and Culture Strategy. To help support the unique demographics and needs of all team members, you can now update your personal information in Workday to include your sexual orientation, gender identity, pronouns, and/or veteran status. To learn more about Inclusion@VNS Health, click here.
December
VNS Health opens two new community centers. Two new VNS Health storefront community centers open in December—one in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, the other in Flushing, Queens. The two centers will provide a range of free offerings for area residents, including programs tailored to the large Asian American populations in those neighborhoods. Click below to view the VNS Health in Action Video about the new centers.
Over 950 VNS Health media stories appear in 2022—and counting! 2022 Media Highlights showcases the many examples of media coverage spotlighting VNS Health.
VNS Health Wins NYC Contract to Provide HHA Services to Over 700 Brooklyn Seniors. VNS Health is awarded a contract from NYC Aging (formerly New York City’s Department for the Aging) to deliver home health aide (HHA) services to over 700 Brooklyn seniors in private residences across the borough. These services are being offered through the DFTA’s Home Care program, which provides non-medical care for capable and independent older adults who are living safely alone at home but need some assistance with activities of daily living.
Vantage Health partnership finalized. VNS Health’s Management Services Organization (MSO) signs a contract with its first external customer, Vantage Health, a Medicare Advantage plan headquartered in Louisiana. As part of the contract, VNS Health will be responsible for an array of services intended to improve quality, member experience, and the total cost of care for Vantage Health Medicare Advantage members with high risk of mortality.
Kudos! This has been a year of many important accomplishments. Kudos to everyone for making it such a tremendous year, and for being there each day for our patients, members, and clients.
Happy Holidays! From all of us on the Frontline team, many thanks to everyone at VNS Health!
To view VNS Health’s 2022 holiday card, please click here or on the image below.
