Posted: Aug. 8, 2017
The National Association for Home Care & Hospice today announced the selection of William A. Dombi, Vice President for Law, as its interim President.
Home Care Association of Colorado members know Bill for his tireless advocacy and for his commitment to Colorado home-care agency providers and HCAC!
The Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the National Association for Home Care & Hospice met on Thursday, August 3, 2017 and voted to appoint William A. Dombi as the interim president of NAHC. This follows the passing of NAHC’s long-time president Val J. Halamandaris, who died on July 25.
Mr. Dombi has served as Vice President for Law at NAHC since 1987 and is also the Director of the Center for Health Care Law and the Executive Director of the Home Care and Hospice Financial Managers Association. In addition, Mr. Dombi is a member of the advisory board of Bloomberg BNA’s Medicare Report. During his over three decades of experience in health care policy and law, Mr. Dombi has been involved in virtually every regulatory and legal development in the area of home care and hospice, including the Medicare home health benefit of 1980, the hospice benefit of 1983 and the Medicare PPS for home health in 2000.
Mr. Dombi served as lead counsel in the colossal lawsuit that successfully reformed the Medicare home health services benefit, and has been at the center of lawsuits against inadequate payment rates in Medicaid programs. Mr. Dombi also led the class action against then-HCFA for failure to enforce the federal HMO Act, and many other legal fights on behalf of home care and hospice.
“Bill Dombi has been at the center of every fight for home care and hospice in the last 30 years,” said Denise Schrader, Chair of the NAHC Board of Directors. “Nobody knows more about this industry than Bill does and nobody is more trusted by those of us in the industry. Bill’s knowledge of law and policy, as well as his experience and familiarity with the NAHC staff and members, make him the right person for the job now.”
The NAHC Board of Directors is empowered to appoint the president of NAHC, but the Executive Committee can act on Association matters and those decisions may be ratified at the next full meeting of the Board of Directors. That full meeting will take place, via conference call, within the next few weeks.
The Executive Committee is currently identifying a search firm with extensive experience in the recruitment of executives for large trade associations to aid in finding a permanent president of NAHC. Vice Chair of the NAHC Board of Directors Lucy Andrews will develop recommendations for the process of selection of the search committee members.
Meanwhile, planning has begun for a memorial celebration of Val Halamandaris at the Home Care and Hospice Conference and Expo from October 15-17 in Long Beach, California. For his lifetime of dedication to the rights of the elderly and disabled, Val will be posthumously honored with the Pope Francis Award for Charity and Leadership in October.
To all who would like to honor Val’s life of good works, NAHC encourages you to consider a contribution to the Caring Institute (http://www.caring.org/donate/).
To celebrate Val’s life NAHC has prepared a short video with some of the people in home care and hospice who knew him best, talking about what he meant to them and to the millions of Americans who depend on home care. Please click here to watch. We hope you will also go to our memorial website for Val, valjhalamandaris.nahc.org, to leave your own thoughts and tributes to a man whose contributions to health care can hardly be described and will never be forgotten.
