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The Harlan County Chamber of Commerce held its regular meeting for June recently, featuring a guest speaker from Harlan Health and Rehabilitation, a skilled nursing facility in Harlan County.

Harlan Health and Rehabilitation (HHR) was represented by Gail Hensley, who brought the panel up to date on the facility.

“I’ve been in healthcare since 1998,” Hensley said. “I’ve been a health care administrator since 2005, so this November will be 18 years that I’ve been doing this. Our facility is a skilled nursing facility. We have 143 beds.”

Hensley said the facility currently employs approximately 130 people.

“Normally, we usually average around 150 employees,” Hensley said. “We’re in a group of nine homes. We’re the second largest in our group. The largest facility is in Hazard. It’s a 200-bed facility.”

According to Hensley, there are many misconceptions about nursing homes.

“A lot of people think you just go there to live out your last days,” Hensley said. “We are a nursing home, but we’re so much more.”

Hensley said the facility offers many rehabilitation services.

“We do a lot of short-term rehab,” Hensley explained. “It may be an 18-year-old who wrecks on his motorcycle and just needs some PT (physical therapy) so he can walk again. We have folks there for a couple weeks, some for a few months, and of course, we have some that will be there for many years.”

Hensley mentioned the ages of individuals in the facility range from 13 to 103.

“We do service people of all ages,” Hensley said. “We can do a lot of things a hospital can do.”

Services people may not be aware the facility offers include in-house labs, diagnostics, optometry, podiatry, and more, Hensley said.

“We do try to be as home-like as possible,” Hensley said. “We don’t want to be any more clinical than we have to be on the surface…our focus is not only to provide the best care possible, we want to make sure we ensure the best quality of life that we can.”

Hensley pointed out that facilities such as HHR are the most regulated in the healthcare industry.

Hensley also addressed some changes in insurance policy in regard to admission to the facility.

“Traditionally, most of our residents were Medicaid recipients,” Hensley said. “About 80 percent were Medicaid recipients, then we had Medicare and private pay, and then we had hospice.”

Hensley said these percentages have changed.

“We’ve seen a real change in that,” Hensley said. “We still have a lot of Medicaid residents, but we’re seeing fewer and fewer with traditional Medicare. We’re seeing a lot of the Medicare replacement plans.”

Hensley said the replacement plans present a challenge.

“The problem is, these (Medicare replacement plans) are good on the outside, but then when you need skilled nursing services, there’s a lack of coverage,” Hensley explained. “The coverage is not good.”

Hensley noted HHR is not in the network for some Medicare replacement plans.

“We’re not in network for some of these,” Hensley said. “It’s a process just finding out what the coverage is. If we get a referral from the hospital, we have to get them pre-certified to see if they have coverage and, if so for how much and how long. That process in itself can take days or even a week or longer.”

For more information on Harlan Health and Rehabilitation, contact the facility at 606-573-7250 or go to their website at https://www.harlanhrc.com.