Plan will give care at home; Fallon and VNA form new agency.

Byline: Lisa Eckelbecker

WORCESTER - The Fallon Community Health Plan and VNA Care Network & Hospice have formed a joint venture and acquired Home Staff, a home care services agency, for an undisclosed sum, the organizations reported yesterday.

The deal gives Fallon and VNA Care Network, both nonprofit entities, access to a line of services such as house cleaning and personal care assistance that they can offer to patients, particularly seniors, in their homes.

"It's really another way to offer choices and options in long-term care," said Jane O. Woodbury, VNA Care Network vice president of business and fund development. "People are getting older, living longer and they want to be in their own home."

Worcester-based Home Staff, previously registered with the state as Massachusetts Health Care Services Inc., has been renamed Home Staff LLC. President Nancy Stassi, who was owner of the privately held agency, has stepped down, and Home Staff Operations Director Angela Rocheleau has been appointed chief executive of the new company, Fallon and VNA Care Network reported.

Home Staff, founded in 1977, employs more than 370 people, many of them part-time workers, through locations in Worcester, Leominster, West Springfield and the Centerville area of Barnstable. The agency's services include personal care, cleaning, assistance with errands, escorts to medical appointments and respite or companionship, Fallon and VNA Care Network reported.

Fallon, a health insurer, said Home Staff expands the services Fallon already provides to people over 55 through its Summit ElderCare operations, a program that includes medical care and day centers aimed at keeping seniors living in their homes rather than nursing homes. Summit operates four centers - in Worcester, Leominster and two in Charlton - and plans to open another center in Worcester later this year.

"Our strategy is to continue to expand Summit ElderCare and, when it makes sense, to develop or acquire organizations that complement the work at Summit ElderCare," said Richard P. Burke, Fallon division president of senior care services.

Home Staff's clientele, many of them older, might also be potential Summit patients, Mr. Burke said.

"Seniors and their caregivers are often not really aware of all the different services that are out there, and it can be confusing, especially if you're dealing with a crisis situation," he said. "There's no question an organization like Home Staff can make seniors and their families know that Summit ElderCare exists."

VNA Care Network serves a territory stretching across Central and Eastern Massachusetts. In addition to offering nursing services, it operates hospices for terminally ill patients.

The Home Staff deal comes as personal care attendants who are paid by Medicaid, the state-federal health program for the poor, are seeking their first contract under the representation of Local 1199 Service Employees International Union. It remains uncertain whether any agreements between the state and personal care attendants over wages will have a financial impact on home services agencies, according to Karen H. Green, president and chief executive of VNA Care Network.

"We'll have to see what it does to home health wages across the state," she said. "There's a pool of workers in the state, and in order to get those workers, you have to be competitive."