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Compassus, VNS Health Team Up to Manage End-of-Life Care for Medicare Advantage Payers

Hospice News

The two home-based care organizations are joining forces in a Medicare Advantage (MA) Value-Based Insurance Design (VBID) model partnership. The collaboration with VNS Health is intended to boost access to end-of-life care for serious and terminally ill patients by improving care coordination and transitions, Holland indicated.

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Researchers Link Social Determinants to Pain Management in End-of-Life Care

Hospice News

Black or Latino patients in socially vulnerable areas were less likely to utilize hospice than white patients, and there’s a compounding effect on end-of-life pain management.” Researchers examined patient data for 48,631 Medicare hospice decedents from 2008 to 2016 across 15 states.

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Longer Hospice Stays Lead to Larger Medicare Cost Savings

Hospice News

Despite years of scrutiny over the duration of hospice care, new data show that longer stays reduce health care costs in the last year of life by as much as 11%. All told, hospice care — regardless of length of stay — saves Medicare approximately $3.5 billion for patients in their last year of life, a 3.1%

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Hospice Leaders: Change Must Come to the Medicare Hospice Benefit

Hospice News

Calls have grown louder for an overhauled design of the Medicare Hospice Benefit, but the path towards change is riddled with contrasting views over regulation, policy and payment structures. Part of the problem is that the [Medicare] Hospice Benefit is 40 plus years old.

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Federal Officials Call for Stronger Medicare Advantage Oversight

Hospice News

Congressional legislators are casting doubts on regulatory oversight of Medicare Advantage plans over concerns about spending, claims denials, and end-of-life care. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) or any Medicare Advantage plans spoke at this hearing. No representatives from the U.S.

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Providers to Lawmakers: Hospice a ‘Huge Value to Medicare’

Hospice News

Hospice care saves Medicare roughly $3.5 billion for patients in their last year of life, according to a joint report from the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO), the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) and NORC at the University of Chicago. “The Additionally, the U.S.

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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. The goal of the bill is to think about barriers to advance care planning utilization. Warner (D-Va.) House of Representatives by Rep.

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