Hospice News

AUGUST 17, 2022

Medicare claims for unrelated services creates serious financial and legal risks for hospice providers — even if they are not the ones who sent the bill. During recent years, payouts for non-hospice services provided to Medicare beneficiaries have tipped into the billions. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

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Hospice News

JULY 13, 2022

bump in Medicare payments, which they say is insufficient in light of COVID-19 and staffing headwinds. A key point of contention is that CMS used 2019 data to calculate the 2023 rate, including wages and cost reports. More than a dozen hospice advocacy groups have called on congressional leadership to intervene in a proposed 2.7%

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Hospice News

JUNE 27, 2022

Social and economic factors like these drive 40% of health outcomes, according to the Better Medicare Alliance. Home-based palliative care could reduce societal health care costs by $103 billion within the next 20 years, the nonprofit economic research group Florida TaxWatch indicated in a 2019 report. Case in point, the U.S.

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Hospice News

JUNE 2, 2023

Close to half of community-based palliative care programs are operated by hospice agencies and 7% are operated by home health operators, according to 2019 data from the Center to Advance Palliative Care and Palliative Care Quality Collaborative data. The Washington, D.C.-based nTakt helps organizations launch palliative care programs.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 4, 2022

Only 10 new Medicare Advantage (MA) plans will offer home-based palliative care as a primarily health-related benefit for 2023, but payers may be offering those services through other programs. Among Medicare Advantage supplemental benefits, in-home support services and caregiver support saw the most year-over-year growth for 2023.

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Hospice News

NOVEMBER 27, 2023

A research team led by Qinjin Fan, senior scientist, health services research at the American Cancer Society, examined National Cancer Database data for more than 333,000 adults who had been newly diagnosed with stage IV cancer in 2018 and 2019 in the contiguous United States. Health outcomes are unequal. The post U.S.

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 12, 2023

The researchers examined hospitalization statistics for 10,323 deceased patients from the National Inpatient Sample between January 2016 to December 2019. In addition, Medicare patients were the least likely to receive palliative care compared with those who had private insurance or Medicaid.

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 8, 2023

Lawmakers have an essential role in ensuring the viability of the Medicare Hospice Benefit, according to Davis Baird, director for government affairs for hospice at the National Association for Home Care and Hospice (NAHC). So, having those conversations about what those improvements would be is going to be an important exercise in 2024.”

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Hospice News

JANUARY 16, 2023

Researchers analyzed records for 43,200 veterans with prior hospitalization who had received primary care at a VA site between October 2016 and September 2019. They included VA hospice encounters in the outcome but not enrollment in a home hospice program, nursing home hospice center or Medicare-paid hospice.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 26, 2024

million Medicare decedents who died in 2019. Nearly half (43%) of the more than 2 million Medicare decedents included in the research were diagnosed with dementia during their lifetime. million Medicare decedents who utilized hospice in 2019, about 591,272 had dementia, the research found. utilized hospice.

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Hospice News

JULY 3, 2023

Rosen and Murkowski, initially tried to pass the palliative care training bill in 2019, and then again 2021. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) recently re-introduced legislation designed to expand the palliative care workforce. They also would provide primary care during their time of service with NHSC.

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Hospice News

MAY 27, 2022

These include the audit system created by Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation (IMPACT) Act of 2014, and the two-tiered reimbursement for routine home care that reduced payment amounts after 60 days. Designed to prevent misuse of the Medicare Hospice Benefit, these efforts may have had unintended consequences.

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Hospice News

MARCH 15, 2024

Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) can have an impact on mortality and morbidity among seriously ill patients, according to researchers of a 2019 study published in the Journal of Pain & Palliative Care Pharmacotherapy. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the U.S. About 81.5%

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 13, 2023

During the past decade, Medicare beneficiaries with dementia who utilized hospice had lower overall health care costs than those who did not, according to the Health Affairs study. are increasingly concerned that greater use of the Medicare hospice benefit by people with dementia is driving up costs,” researchers wrote in the study.

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Hospice News

NOVEMBER 1, 2023

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has finalized its 2024 home health rule, including the implementation of a hospice Special Focus Program (SFP). The final rule forbids any change in majority ownership during the 36 months after initial Medicare enrollment, including acquisitions, stock transactions or mergers.

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Hospice News

APRIL 16, 2024

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) introduced a number of provisions aimed at addressing conflicts of interest and establishing more consistent standards, processes and definitions among accreditation entities. Safety and quality concerns in hospice began surfacing in two 2019 reports from the U.S.

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Hospice News

MARCH 14, 2024

In 2019, for example, the percentage was 66%. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has developed a financial incentive to foster better performance on the measure, the service-intensity add-on. Social worker visits in the last days of life also rose to 9% in 2021, up from 7% in 2020. CMS introduced SIA in 2016.

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NHPCO

JULY 28, 2023

For Immediate Release July 28, 2023 New Research Shows Hospice Produces Better Outcomes, Lower Medicare Costs (Washington, D.C. billion in Medicare savings in 2019, while also providing multiple benefits to patients, families, and caregivers. In other words, earlier enrollment in hospice reduces Medicare spending even further.

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Hospice News

MARCH 13, 2024

These issues first came to light following two 2019 reports from the U.S. Despite these efforts, a January ProPublica investigation found that providers in California, Texas, Nevada and Arizona account for more than two-thirds of the nation’s newly Medicare-certified hospices.

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NHPCO

MARCH 21, 2023

For Immediate Release March 22, 2023 New Research Shows Hospice Care Reduces Medicare Costs Hospice Care Contributed to $3.5 billion in savings for Medicare in 2019, while providing multiple benefits to patients, families, and caregivers. In other words, earlier enrollment in hospice reduces Medicare spending even further.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 2, 2023

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has been gradually implementing changes to the hospice survey process and enforcement remedies, including civil monetary penalties in some instances. These actions were designed to strengthen regulatory oversight of providers in the wake of two July 2019 reports from the U.S.

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Hospice News

JULY 31, 2023

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has unveiled a new payment model demonstration geared toward dementia-related illnesses, which are becoming more prevalent among hospice patients. Patients who have elected the Medicare Hospice Benefit are not eligible for the program. By 2050, this is expected to nearly double to 12.7

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Hospice News

APRIL 25, 2023

The hospital is located in Robeson County, North Carolina, which as of 2019 had a total population of roughly 116,000 people. In 2019, the most recent year for which county-specific data are available, 823 Robeson residents were admitted to a hospice. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reported. “A Census Bureau.

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 22, 2022

In 2019, the organization had just 200 members. Combined, Asians, African Americans and Hispanics in 2018 represented only 20% of Medicare hospice patients, while the remaining 80% were Caucasian, according NHPCO. Vast disparities in hospice utilization exist among some groups and demographics.

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Hospice News

AUGUST 21, 2023

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) forthcoming Special Focus Program (SFP) for hospices. The program would have the authority to impose fines, suspend reimbursement, appoint temporary management to bring the hospice into compliance or revoke a provider’s Medicare certification altogether. million annually.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 9, 2023

The Medicare Hospice Benefit initially was designed around the needs of cancer patients, but now the number of patients with other diagnoses is growing — some with less predictable disease patterns. of hospice enrollees in 2019, up from 9% in 2002, according to the National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO).

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 26, 2023

EOLDs have had a growing presence in the serious illness and end-of-life care space, but their services are not reimbursed by Medicare or other insurance, according to Jane Euler, co-founder and chief doula of Present for You LLC. There is no formal mechanism to provide payment for these important services under a fee-for-service system.

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Hospice News

MARCH 5, 2024

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) efforts to revamp the process, aimed at improving the quality of care. Legislators added the hospice language in response to July 2019 reports on hospice quality from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 14, 2022

trillion in 2021, according to a new analysis from the Office of the Actuary at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). share in 2019. Medicare spending, for example, accounted for 21% of total national health care expenditures and reached $900.8 in 2020, according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission.

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Hospice News

JANUARY 30, 2024

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) gave hospices a 3.1% Clinical practice guidelines are more clear regarding the initiation of medications, but often unclear about when discontinuation is safe and appropriate, a 2019 study in the journal Clinical Medicine indicated. billion for patients in their last year of life, a 3.1%

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 16, 2024

In 2019 the Minnesota-headquartered hospice provider began utilizing a predictive analytics tool from Medalogix. Back in 2019 we were really looking at how we could enhance our presences, and how using end-of-life technology could help guide us to being at the right spot at the right moment for our patients,” Arnold told Hospice News.

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Hospice News

AUGUST 8, 2022

As the hospice community takes its first steps into value-based reimbursement, stakeholders have an opportunity to re-examine elements of the Medicare Hospice Benefit that may be outdated, according to some providers. The hospice benefit became a formal part of Medicare in 1983. Initially, the U.S.

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Hospice News

JANUARY 18, 2024

Formerly known as Catskills Area Hospice and Palliative Care, the organization rebranded as Helios in 2019. But we both know that as Medicare Advantage begins to expand, and [the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)] is anticipating being fully transferring beneficiaries to Medicare Advantage by 2030.

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 12, 2023

The patient safety concerns bubbled up in 2019 with two reports from the U.S. Many established services for the purpose of selling the license at a profit or defrauding Medicare. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has rolled out a swath of new measures to reduce fraud, waste and abuse in the space.

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Hospice News

JULY 5, 2022

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) penalizes hospitals for readmissions rates that exceed certain thresholds, but the agency does not account for the supply of post-acute providers available to patients in a providers’ service region.

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Hospice News

APRIL 22, 2022

among Medicare decedents, according to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reported in 2019 that more than 140,700 patients utilized the Medicare Hospice Benefit statewide, with reimbursement totalling more than $1.9 A team of St. billion.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 4, 2023

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). We are committed to ensuring that the HOSPICE Act is implemented in a manner that aligns with congressional intent to improve the quality of care delivered to Medicare beneficiaries nearing the end of life,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter. Four members of Congress led by Reps.

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