Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 19, 2022

While hospice and home health M&A continue to burgeon, non-medical home care is starting to slip out from under their shadows. Deal volume for non-medical home care companies outstripped that for hospice or home health during the first half of the year. As of 2019, the U.S.

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 22, 2022

These cover the innovative partnerships, new technologies, pediatric care, health equity and other key developments in the hospice space. Pandemic Pushes Death Doula Awareness, Hospices Seek Strengthened Ties. Hospice Sustainability Rides Hand in Hand With Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 26, 2024

Hospice operators in 2024 are navigating a rapidly transforming environment. The prior three years have laid the groundwork for change, particularly in the regulatory space as well as gradual migration towards value-based reimbursement and in tandem, the proliferation of business lines beyond hospice.

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 12, 2022

Utah-based Canyon Home Health & Hospice recently acquired Uintah Home Health and Hospice for an undisclosed amount, growing its footprint in the Beehive State state. Uintah Home Health and Hospice patients began receiving services under the Canyon umbrella earlier this month.

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 1, 2023

Wages for hospice clinicians continue to go up amid widespread staff shortages, but they grew at a slower rate in 2023 compared to the prior year. Turnover rates for RNs decreased to 25.53% in 2023, from 29.15% in 2022; LPN turnover was 29.97% in 2023, compared to 31.52% in 2022; HCAs dropped slightly from 29.84% in 2022 to 28.18% in 2023.”

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Hospice News

JUNE 14, 2023

The nation’s total health care spend is expected to swell by 5.4% annually between 2022 and 2031, reaching $7.1 Meanwhile, Medicare hospice spending is expected to more than double by 2032. The report, published today in Health Affairs , did not contain hospice-specific data. ” In 2022, CMS paid $23.9

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Hospice News

NOVEMBER 8, 2023

Senate Finance Committee is holding a markup meeting today on a bill that would, among other provisions, reallocate close to $1 billion hospice dollars to other programs. A couple of sentences in a 120-page set of amendments to the Social Security Act would make adjustments to the hospice payment cap for 2033 that would free up $927 million.

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Hospice News

MARCH 23, 2023

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is extending the value-based insurance design demonstration for calendar years 2025 to 2030, including the hospice component. The hospice component of VBID, also called the MA carve-in, launched in 2021 and was originally slated to complete after four years. It makes sense.

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Hospice News

JANUARY 30, 2024

When deprescribing medications for hospice patients, providers have to navigate a complex web of factors. Medication costs are among hospices’ biggest expenses, and deprescribing some medications deemed “curative” or “unrelated” to the patient’s terminal diagnosis is a standard practice. “We Everything is based on cost.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 8, 2023

Hospice leaders would like to see some changes in the space this year, particularly around staffing, payer relationships and regulation. Hospice executives in December 2022 shared their predictions for what would happen in the space during 2023. The labor shortage is unsurprisingly a top concern. “We

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Hospice News

APRIL 7, 2023

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is seeking answers from the hospice community — including some around utilization patterns and non-hospice spending. The recently proposed 2024 hospice payment rule contained a 2.8% In Fiscal Year 2022, routine home care accounted for 98.8%

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Hospice News

JUNE 7, 2023

Hospice leaders and lawmakers are meeting on Capitol Hill today to address the pressing issue of program integrity, among other policy priorities. Thus far, California is the only state to take action on the issue, beginning with a moratorium on new hospice licenses and an extensive audit of California’s oversight processes.

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Hospice News

APRIL 28, 2023

When it comes to value-based payment models, home health has a head start on hospice. But those providers’ experiences can lend some insights into how hospices can prepare themselves. Hospices are only now taking their first steps into value-based reimbursement. But starting in 2022, CMS began rolling it out nationwide.

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Hospice News

AUGUST 21, 2023

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) forthcoming Special Focus Program (SFP) for hospices. CMS initially pitched the idea in 2022 but instead convened a Technical Expert Panel (TEP) to further guide development. Hospices flagged by the SFP would be surveyed every six months rather than the current three-year cycle.

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 8, 2023

Hospice providers will be looking to Congress in 2024 to address issues related to program integrity, quality improvement and industry-wide workforce pressures. As legislative efforts develop, hospices may want to focus their attention on a few key legislators. We don’t have confidence in the algorithm that they proposed.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 15, 2023

Members of Congress are seeking answers from federal regulators on hospice program integrity as industry advocacy groups call for further action. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), asking for the agency to brief them on fraud and abuse within the hospice benefit.

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 9, 2022

The hospice component of the value-based insurance design (VBID) model will begin its third year on Jan. Often called the MA hospice carve-in , the voluntary demonstration is designed to assess payer and provider performance related to hospice within Medicare Advantage (MA).

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Hospice News

JANUARY 18, 2024

Helios Care is working to change the face of hospice in its update New York service region, with a new partnership with the Bassett Healthcare Network as a cornerstone of its strategy. Formerly known as Catskills Area Hospice and Palliative Care, the organization rebranded as Helios in 2019.

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 22, 2023

The four largest hospice industry organizations have been working to present a united front to address widespread program integrity issues. In some instances, multiple hospices have been operating out of the same address without a corresponding increase in the population of eligible patients. This prompted the U.S.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 14, 2022

“[Arizona has] a fantastic state government, a Medicaid program that truly aims to support families with intermediaries that share that vision, and a demographic that needs our services,” Jackson told Hospice News in an email. Veterans programs and managed care organizations also have become more involved in the space.

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Hospice News

MAY 2, 2023

Language in the 2024 proposed rule for the Medicare hospice program gives some indication of where the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is heading when it comes to quality measurement requirements. If the rule is finalized as written, this will jump to 4%in Fiscal Year 2024 — retroactively to 2022 data.

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Hospice News

JANUARY 3, 2023

Today’s health care environment is flooded with data, but hospice leaders should include three types of indicators in mind as they assess their performance. Numbers like costs-per-day, payer-specific margins, and measures of community support can paint a picture of an organization’s position, executives told Hospice News.

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Hospice News

AUGUST 8, 2023

Hospices seeking to gauge the potential impact of new regulatory actions in the space can look to their counterparts in the home health field. We then started seeing the greater degree of impact,” Dombi told Hospice News. CMS is no doubt hoping for similar results for the Medicare Hospice Benefit.

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Hospice News

MAY 31, 2023

Citing inflation and other headwinds, hospice providers and industry organizations are urging the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to reconsider the proposed 2.8% This is the first of a series of Hospice News articles that will cover the industry’s response to the proposed rule.

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 13, 2023

As Contessa Health pioneers a growing value-based palliative care-at-home program, they’ve encountered some learning curves when it comes to operating within a new payment system. Contessa is a subsidiary of Amedisys (NASDAQ: AMED), which the home health and hospice provider acquired in 2021 for $250 million.

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Hospice News

JUNE 20, 2023

NASDAQ: PNTG) has acquired Idaho-based Bluebird Home Health, Bluebird Hospice and Bluebird Home Care for an undisclosed sum. Pennant has its sights on multiple potential transactions across its hospice, home health and senior living business lines, the company has indicated in earnings calls. Census Bureau.

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Hospice News

JULY 17, 2023

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is conducting a small pilot program for post-payment reviews of hospice stays that exceed 90 days. CMS internal data has identified a potential area of vulnerability beginning with the second benefit period, or 91st day in hospice,” Noridian indicated in an announcement. “CMS

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Hospice News

MARCH 8, 2023

High valuations have led Addus HomeCare (NASDAQ: ADUS) to pivot towards personal care and home health deals rather than hospice acquisitions. Hospice multiples broke records in 2020, 2021 and 2022, reaching as high as 29x. Hospice is still very expensive. Addus began as a personal care provider in 1979.

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Hospice News

JUNE 21, 2023

Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) recently announced plans to launch a new audit that will focus on general inpatient hospice services. Through the audit, OIG will determine whether hospice providers that billed for general inpatient care complied with Medicare requirements.

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 25, 2023

While the hospice community has generally embraced the concept of a Special Focus Program (SFP) to address quality concerns, some are troubled by the government’ methodology for identifying providers. About a quarter of them don’t report HCI data,” Atkins told Hospice News. “A

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Hospice News

APRIL 26, 2023

Following its hospice divestiture, Humana’s (NYSE: HUM) health care services business, CenterWell, is poised for growth, with demand for acute senior home care as a driver. Humana completed its divestiture of Gentiva Hospice (formerly Kindred at Home) in August 2022. billion in Q1 2022.

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Hospice News

JULY 3, 2023

Some hospice owners have been selling their businesses soon after securing a license. The practice appears to stem from a rash of newly licensed hospices that have emerged in California, Nevada, Texas and Arizona. Some of these providers have secured licenses, as well as Medicare certification and, sometimes, accreditation.

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 13, 2022

Most hospices are sliding into 2023 between a rock and a hard place, beset by headwinds, labor shortages and questions with no easy answers. Government oversight of hospice providers will tighten during 2023. Hospices have faced ever-intensifying scrutiny from regulators in recent years. Be ready for regulation.

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Hospice News

JUNE 27, 2023

As more hospices engage with Medicare Advantage (MA) plans, they may be able to learn from the experiences of some home health providers. Historically, MA has not covered hospice. Everyone needs access to the home and what it provides. For hospices, this includes performance on quality measures required by the U.S.

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Hospice News

JANUARY 31, 2024

The Texas-based home health and hospice company VitalCaring Group was built largely through acquisitions, and the company expects to step up that strategy in 2024 with an emphasis on hospice. The company, which also offers pediatric and companion care, has also opened a few de novos and has more planned for this year.

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 12, 2022

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) is poised to recommend that the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reduce the aggregate cap for hospice payments by 20% in 2024. CMS set the 2023 cap at $32,486.92, up from nearly $31,300 per patient for Fiscal Year 2022. . During 2020, about 18.6%

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 20, 2022

Senate’s Comprehensive Care Caucus have asked federal regulators to examine program integrity within the Medicare Hospice Benefit. Medicare fraud cannot be tolerated, especially when it is being perpetrated on our nation’s most vulnerable patients,” the senators wrote. The four senators wrote to the U.S.

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