NHPCO

DECEMBER 13, 2023

The findings in this report reflect patients who received care in Calendar Year (CY) 2021, or Fiscal Year (FY) 2021, provided by hospices certified by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and reimbursed under the Medicare Hospice Benefit. Most beneficiaries switch to Traditional Medicare. of White, 36.3%

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2023 2021 Medicare 2020 95

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. Meanwhile, turnover rates declined in 2023, representing the first drop in several years, the report indicated. Social worker wages went up 3.78%, as well as a 2.58% increase for chaplains.

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Hospice Social worker 2023 Chaplain 261

Hospice News

FEBRUARY 26, 2024

Meanwhile, providers are also rolling with the ups-and-downs of a market ripe for further consolidation after 2023’s M&A slump as workforce headwinds persist. Providers have reported shortages among social workers and nonclinical staff as well.

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2024 Hospice 2030 2023 289

Hospice News

FEBRUARY 28, 2024

A bonus program implemented last year has accelerated hiring, which in turn has relieved some of the capacity constraints that have been a stumbling block for several quarters running.The initiative included a one-time retention payment that ranges from $2,000 to $15,000 per employee for nurses, nurse managers, home health aides and social workers.

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Social worker 2023 2024 2022 147

Hospice News

DECEMBER 13, 2023

Since at least 2022, Contessa has been pursuing palliative care reimbursement through Medicare Advantage. Earlier this year, the Amedisys subsidiary entered into its first full-risk Medicare Advantage contract to include palliative care with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee. based research and consulting firm ATI Advisory. “I

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Palliative care Palliate Social worker Medicare 303

Hospice News

APRIL 27, 2023

“I’ll stick my neck out a little bit and just say that if the current rate of capacity expansion continues, and running more like 50 to 75 increase in licensed health care workers per month, in 2024 we’ll return to our pre-pandemic census,” CFO and Executive Vice President David Williams said in a Q1 earnings call. This is down 2.1%

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2024 Social worker 2023 2022 246

Hospice News

MAY 30, 2023

Recipients will be announced in December 2023. Participants included hospice aides, social workers, nurses, clinicians, chaplains and other staff. Aides and other hospice workers are in high demand in California, which is among the states with higher volumes of Medicare decedents who elect hospice, according to the U.S.

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Home care Hospice aide Hospice Social worker 244

Hospice News

JULY 27, 2023

In addition to nurses, the retention program also aimed to recruit admission nurses, nurse managers, home health aides and social workers. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) proposed 2.8% All told, hospice saves Medicare $3.5 billion annually, the study found.

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Social worker Medicare 2022 2024 242

Hospice News

FEBRUARY 8, 2023

Hospice executives in December 2022 shared their predictions for what would happen in the space during 2023. Providers have reported shortages among social workers and nonclinical staff as well. This entire Medicare Advantage carve-in, it makes sense. The labor shortage is unsurprisingly a top concern.

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Hospice Demo Medicare 2023 246

Hospice News

FEBRUARY 16, 2024

visits in the last seven days of life between May and November 2023. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) quality measures such as the Hospice Quality Reporting Program (HQRP) and the Hospice Item Set (HIS). Through the predictive analytics data, hospice patients at St. Croix received an average of roughly 10.3

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Hospice 2009 2019 Social worker 264

Hospice News

JUNE 29, 2023

These are usually chaplains or social workers providing bereavement services, and some hospices also have clinical psychologists or therapists as part of that team. There isn’t a guideline as to what would be considered best practice or appropriately fulfilling the Medicare requirements for bereavement,” Gross said.

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Bereavement Grief Hospice Social worker 264

Hospice News

OCTOBER 26, 2023

The bonus program, which ended in July, included a one-time retention payment that ranges from $2,000 to $15,000 per employee for nurses, nurse managers, home health aides and social workers who completed at least 12 months of employment. increase to the Medicare base rate. These factors helped to generate a 12.5%

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Social worker Medicare 2023 2022 130

Hospice News

MARCH 11, 2024

Case in point, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) in 2021 announced a “strategy refresh” that included focus on health care equity in payment model design. Spiritual care is not directly reimbursable work in the same way as clinicians or social workers are getting reimbursed [and] that can create great barriers.

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Hospice chaplaincy Chaplain Hospice chaplain Grief 278

Hospice News

DECEMBER 12, 2023

The provider has expanded to four new states and nearly doubled its patient census bring 2023 alone. At the end of this year we’ll be serving almost 1,700 patients, which would be an increase of about 2x, or 100%, in terms of our census at the beginning of 2023. We do traditional Medicare. We do fee-for-service.

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Palliative care 2024 Palliate 2013 276

Hospice News

NOVEMBER 1, 2022

These factors, along with the return of Medicare sequestration, have contributed to declining revenues. But some indicators in Q3 point to an upturn in some areas as 2023 approaches. VITAS’ Community Access Initiative is one of the interventions that appear to be bearing fruit, according to CEO Nick Westfall. from the prior year.

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Social worker 2020 Assisted living Medicare 232

Hospice News

JULY 28, 2022

The program, which includes one-time retention bonuses, is focused on building up the company’s supply of licensed nurses, nurse managers, home health aides and social workers, Chemed CEO Kevin McNamara reported in an earnings call.

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2024 Social worker 2023 Medicare 264

Hospice News

DECEMBER 16, 2022

11, 2023, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure. CMS has extended virtual care in Medicare in mental health to the extent of our authority, and Congress has extended a lot of the telehealth flexibilities beyond the public health emergency. Currently set to expire Jan.

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Hospice Social worker Medicare 2020 246

Hospice News

DECEMBER 21, 2022

Contributing to these declines were constraints on clinical capacity stemming from the labor shortage, as well as some instances of lower reimbursement for its home health services due to the shift of more patients towards Medicare Advantage, executives said in an earnings call. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

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2022 Hospice Medicare 2021 244

Hospice News

DECEMBER 6, 2023

Close to 60% of nearly 330 hospice professionals indicated that their organizations planned to launch palliative care programs for the first time during 2023, according to Hospice News’ Industry Outlook Survey , prepared in collaboration with Homecare Homebase. In addition to the expansion of existing programs, more are cropping up.

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Palliative care 2024 Palliate Social worker 317

NHPCO

JUNE 21, 2023

For Immediate Release June 21, 2023 (Alexandria, VA) – The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) published the following statement in response to a recent NBC News story on HCA Healthcare hospitals, suggesting that HCA hospitals may be inappropriately pushing patients toward hospice care.

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Hospice End-of-life care 2023 Social worker 97

NHPCO

DECEMBER 20, 2022

Alexandria, VA) Congress has released the text of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, an omnibus funding package that will fund the government through Fiscal Year 2023. There is no requirement for hospices to use MFTs or MHCs and a social worker is still required if needed under a patient’s plan of care.

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Bereavement Grief 2024 2014 117

Hospice News

FEBRUARY 2, 2023

And while hospices offer social workers and spiritual care, many families continue to have unmet needs that could impede some patients’ access to hospice. At the same time, the ratio of potential caregivers to seriously ill seniors is expected to shrink to 4-to-1 by 2023, a “sharp decline” from 7-to-1 in 2010, AARP reported.

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Caregiver Hospice 2010 Palliative care 338

NHPCO

OCTOBER 5, 2023

For Immediate Release October 5, 2023 Photo Link (Alexandria, Va) – This week the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) honored standout members of the hospice and palliative care community during the 2023 NHPCO Annual Leadership Conference in Little Rock, Arkansas.

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2002 2023 Presentation Hospice volunteer 52

Hospice News

MAY 25, 2023

The conversation took place on April 20, 2023, during the Hospice News Palliative Care Conference. I think from our perspective, that’s where we believe that Medicare Advantage plans are starting to see that value add. The article below has been edited for length and clarity. For a patient, a panel is essential.

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Palliative care Palliate Medicare Article 246

Hospice News

NOVEMBER 30, 2022

As VBID now, we’re approaching the end of 2022 and then emerging into 2023, we’re going to be in 15 plans, 119 plan benefit packages, and across 806 counties. HSPN: Can you talk a little bit about what kind of disruption could occur in the hospice industry, as a result of Medicare Advantage? Are you not?

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Hospice Chaplain Medicare Article 246

NHPCO

JUNE 16, 2023

These congressional advocacy actions came a week after NHPCO filed detailed comments on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 Hospice Wage Index and Quality Reporting Proposed Rule, demonstrating the importance of both legislative and regulatory advocacy for protecting and improving hospice and palliative care.

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2024 Hospice Palliative care Medicare 82

Hospice News

JANUARY 31, 2024

About 16% of the survey respondents indicated plans to start palliative care programs this year, a decline from 56% of respondents in 2023. Most PACE participants are reimbursed through the long-term care programs within Medicare and Medicaid, according to Black.

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2024 Hospice Homecare Palliative care 230

Hospice News

JULY 11, 2023

I have channeled my passion for working with underserved communities, beginning as a licensed social worker for a large hospital system, where I experienced firsthand the disparities in healthcare access and limitations in delivering whole-person care. Editor’s Note: This article has been edited for length and clarity.

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End-of-life care 2030 Palliative care Article 100

Home Care Pulse

FEBRUARY 14, 2023

Payer Sources: Private HMO insurance plan through Alice’s job Medicare as Alice became eligible for Social Security Disability Insurance and Medicare when she was diagnosed with ALS. Do your social workers know how to access the lending closet for specialized equipment? Tips for you!

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Social worker Article Feeding Chaplain 79

NHPCO

MARCH 6, 2022

Conference Marks 40 Years of the Medicare Hospice Benefit. This year marks 40 years since Congress passed the legislation that created the Medicare hospice benefit, making the conference location just a few miles from the Capitol especially appropriate for this year. For Immediate Release: March 6, 2022. Alexandria, Va.,

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Palliative care Palliate Hospice Social worker 40

Chicago Caregiving

DECEMBER 14, 2022

You don’t need any assistance and can meet all of your retirement dreams and travel everywhere,” says Sarah Jackson, a social worker with North Shore Senior Center in Northfield. . Originally published in the Winter/Spring 2023 print issue. “Retirement is portrayed as a dream and fantasy, where you are 80 and able-bodied.

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Social worker Medicare Grief Caregiver 52

Hospice News

DECEMBER 19, 2022

In 2022, the hospice community laid the groundwork for a transformational 2023. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) developed new approaches for enforcing hospice regulations that will become effective on Jan. 1 Social Workers Leaving Hospice, Health Care in Record Numbers (July 11). CMS gave hospices a 3.8%

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2022 Social worker Hospice Homecare 246

Hospice News

DECEMBER 5, 2022

My clinical experiences have been foundational to my growth, but my aging health policy experience with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and my time with The California Endowment were equally important. Why does CHAP have a national medical director, registered nurse and social worker on staff who all specialize in hospice?

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Medical director Custodial care Hospice Social worker 130

Hospice News

JULY 13, 2023

Hospices’ cost-savings potential A study published in March revealed that hospice saved Medicare roughly $3.5 Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has been zeroing in on long lengths of stay as a potential red flag, one that could suggest a hospice admitted someone who was not truly eligible.

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Hospice News

NOVEMBER 14, 2022

This year brought the return of Medicare sequestration, and pandemic-driven disruption in referral streams are lingering. This expense and associated drops in patient volume put a dent in third quarter revenues, but CFO Jeff Shaner has indicated that enduring that disruption will set up Aveanna for a healthier 2023. . “In

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Hospice companies 2023 Hospice Homecare 241

Hospice News

DECEMBER 4, 2023

For VITAS in particular, increases in clinical capacity has fostered steady growth during 2023. Centers of Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), is contributing to the company’s optimism. Fueling the growth is an influx of new clinician hires, spurred by a bonus program the company offered between July 2022 and mid-2023.

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2024 Social worker 2023 2020 278

Hospice News

JUNE 1, 2022

Hospice and palliative care need greater recognition among disciplines across the board, beyond medicine and nursing, according to Eunju Lee, palliative care social worker at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule calling for a 2.7%

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Hospice Social worker Palliative care Social work 279