Richard Z. Steinhaus Award - Greg Turchan, Premier Home Health Care Services Greg has been part of the fabric of home care his entire professional career. Initially, as part of a family-owned, licensed home care agency on Long Island—Long Island Nursing—and served in multiple roles, including President, until the company was sold. It was during his time at Long Island Nursing that he became involved in the New York State Association of Health Care Providers, Inc., including serving in numerous volunteer roles with the Association. He was very engaged in public policy efforts on behalf of the Association and in furtherance of a strong place in the health care continuum for licensed home care services agencies and the services they bring to consumers.
Greg, now President of Premier Home Health Care Services, Inc., has been with the organization for close to 20 years. Throughout, Greg has remained connected and engaged with New York policy makers—showing them what licensed home care services agencies and their workforce bring to the table and how LHCSAs must be recognized for the critical role we play in improving quality, supporting consumers, and keeping overall costs down in the long term care system. He also has been unrelenting in his efforts to secure adequate reimbursement for these services.
Throughout his career, Greg has been generous with his time and knowledge when called upon by industry colleagues, associations, policy makers, and his own staff and has often been a go-to call for State Legislators and DOH staff needing information on LHCSA and LTC related issues. This year, Greg was tapped by the New York State Medicaid Director to participate in the Medicaid Redesign Team II to represent the interests of LHCSAs and home care in significant discussions that would reframe New York’s long term care system for the future. Throughout the process, Greg reached out to the industry for insight and perspective. While the process did not necessarily yield perfection, for the first time in decades, LHCSAs had a strong, single-minded representative at the policy table to educate, provide perspective, and drive home the reimbursement issues confronting the industry.
In recognition of his decades-long contributions to health care policy on behalf of LHCSAs and long term care sector, we believe Greg Turchan is a strong and worthy candidate for the 2020 Richard Z Steinhaus award.
Associate Member of the Year –James Cohen, Nevvon James Cohen is the founder and CEO of Nevvon, a company that has stepped up the usage of technology in the home care sector. James is an active member of HCP’s Long Island and New York City Chapters where he shares his knowledge regarding New York State legislative and regulatory issues. James and his team at Nevvon are experts in developing the compliance and regulatory training requirements needed for home care agencies across New York and other states. He has supported the goals and objectives of HCP consistently since joining the organization in 2017. Over the past years’ challenging pandemic crisis, James generously sourced and donated multiple PPE items that were desperately needed by hospitals and home care agencies across New York. James has selflessly devoted his time and efforts to ensuring that lunches and snacks were organized and delivered to multiple care workers and hospitals who were dedicated to caring for COVID-19 patients. James’s generously created and provided complimentary infection control and COVID-19 training to New York state home care agencies. In addition, James also translated HCP’s Take 5 to Fight COVID-19 video series into Spanish. He continues to support HCP through personal calls and connections to colleagues to encourage attendance at events and to advocate for them to join HCP. James has supported and attended Advocacy Days on several occasions and was a key sponsor of the HCP new member dinner during the annual conference.
James has repeatedly demonstrated that HCP is high on his priority list.
Excellence in Public Relations Award – Christy Johnston, Premier Home Health Care Services Christy Johnston has worked tirelessly behind the scenes to gather home care stories from multiple agencies and encourage a united front in broadcasting the message that home care is the best solution for our patients and clients. As media stories developed, Christy involved HCP as the voice that could provide a global view of the challenges and opportunities home care is experiencing.