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How an Advance Care Planning Bill Could Impact Hospice and Medicare

Hospice News

and Susan Collins (R-Maine) introduced the Improving Access to Advance Care Planning Act to the Senate designed to promote greater access to those services among Medicare beneficiaries. Social workers are probably the most positioned for these kinds of conversations. Sunsetting the co-pays could cost Medicare roughly $104.5

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How Medicare Budget Neutrality Impacts Hospice Payment

Hospice News

Medicare reimbursement is the lifeblood of hospice providers, and a clear understanding of policies like budget neutrality can help elucidate the payment systems that keep their businesses running. But a similar move within the Medicare Hospice Benefit is unlikely.

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Incoming Samaritan CEO Phillip Heath: Reduce Dependence on Medicare

Hospice News

Vice-chair Nandini Natrajan will succeed him as leader of the board, which Heath joined in 2018. One is how can we continue to diversify our services and help more people in more ways — and second, looking at how we can reduce our dependence on Medicare reimbursement. So what do we do? We say that we can skip and modify the care plan.

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HAP Foundation, NORC: Structural Racism Impedes Access to Hospice, Palliative Care

Hospice News

Roughly 82% of Medicare decedents in 2018 were Caucasian, according to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. If there was someone like a social worker or patient advocate who could listen to their concerns and help them, it might make their situation better. Because Black lives don’t matter.

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EdenHill Senior Living Communities Starts In-House Hospice Business

Hospice News

Patients have already begun receiving care through EdenHospice, which is currently awaiting Medicare certification. The EdenHospice team includes a hospice physician, director of nursing, chaplain, social worker, aides and volunteers. Hospice utilization among Medicare decedents in Texas reached 52.1%

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St. Francis Reflections Lifestage Care Launches New Florida Inpatient Hospice Center

Hospice News

Volunteers, social workers, chaplains and bereavement counselors also make up the center’s staff. The Sunshine State in 2018 ranked third nationwide for hospice utilization at 57.9% among Medicare decedents, according to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. and 59.2%, respectively. The new center is St.

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Lack of Staff, Guidelines Build Hurdles for Hospice Bereavement Care Programs

Hospice News

These are usually chaplains or social workers providing bereavement services, and some hospices also have clinical psychologists or therapists as part of that team. The Maryland-based hospice suspended the program in 2018. There’s no guideline in place for fulfilling this Medicare requirement in an economically feasible way.”