Hospice News

JUNE 20, 2023

Patient data protection and telehealth compliance are key pieces for hospices to bear in mind when navigating technology partnerships in a post-pandemic regulatory landscape. Hospices are facing regulatory concerns since the COVID-19 public health emergency ended (PHE) on May 11 that have centered around telehealth.

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Hospice News

NOVEMBER 14, 2023

Canon Healthcare was a New Orleans-based hospice provider that also served the Baton Rouge and Covington, Louisiana, markets, as well as parts of Mississippi. The court convicted Akula of 23 counts of health care fraud, including eight counts of overbilling for the General Inpatient level of care. Justice Department.

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Hospice News

JANUARY 25, 2024

National hospice utilization rates have fallen since 2020, though the total number of patients served remains consistent. The aging population continues to increase, so even as the percentage of patients served decreases, the total number of patients served increases,” Ware told Hospice News. “The About 47.3% About 47.3% In 2021, 1.71

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Hospice News

JULY 28, 2023

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is giving hospices a 3.1% That will translate to a $780 million bump to hospice payments next year compared to Fiscal Year 2023, according to CMS. payment boost the agency initially proposed for 2024 hospice payments back in March. for next year, up from $32,486.92 set in 2023.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 23, 2024

Rising wages, reimbursement pressures and immigration policies are fueling high turnover rates for hospice and personal care aides. It is rare to find individuals who perceive personal care as a career choice, or path. For example, the average length of employment for home health aides is 1.3 Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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Hospice News

MARCH 1, 2024

The online clinical training platform CareAcademy has developed a hospice care curriculum. The new curriculum is designed to offer “foundational orientation training” for hospice aides, nurses, volunteers, social workers, chaplains and other spiritual care providers, as well as physicians.

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Hospice News

JUNE 1, 2023

Patient preferences are trending towards home-based hospice care, leaving some inpatient facilities between a rock and a hard place. Meanwhile, other hospices diversify and expand their inpatient service capabilities. Shifting care preferences are another driving force behind the closure, according to MercyOne.

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Hospice News

AUGUST 26, 2022

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. For example, CMS wouldn’t cut hospital payments to increase rates for hospices. These reductions occur within each service.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 20, 2024

A dearth of coordination or integration between rehab teams and palliative care teams routinely forces some patients into a cycle between the hospital and the nursing home in their last year of life. The repeated hospitalizations persisted until her death — she never returned home.

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Hospice News

MARCH 31, 2023

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) late Friday released the 2024 proposed payment rule for hospice providers. In it, CMS proposed to update hospice payments by 2.8%, which includes a market-basket percentage increase of 3% and a 0.2 percentage point productivity adjustment.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 2, 2024

Sarah Bush Lincoln Opens New Hospice Illinois-based Sarah Bush Lincoln Hospice recently opened a new inpatient facility. Located in Mattoon, Illinois, the Willow Breeze Hospice House features eight patient rooms with private bathrooms. The hospice provider is part of the Sarah Bush Lincoln Health System, which opened in 1977.

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Hospice News

JULY 10, 2023

Prevalent care models for neurological illnesses could be improved by more extensive integration of palliative care, recent research has found. A team of international researchers reviewed prior studies of care models for treating Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, dementia and other neurological diseases.

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Hospice News

MAY 27, 2022

Regulators have been zeroing in on longer lengths of stay in hospice, but patients with dementia may be caught in the crossfire. . Two policy changes have corresponded with reductions in hospice enrollment among dementia patients, a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association has found.

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Hospice News

AUGUST 2, 2023

New York-based United Health Services (UHS) Binghamton General Hospital has opened a new palliative care unit. The new unit is intended to expand access among patients in need of both community- and facility-based palliative care. An additional goal for the new unit is to create more seamless care transitions into hospice.

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Hospice News

APRIL 16, 2024

A Tennessee provider is working to break down barriers to palliative care for rural cancer patients in their home state. For cancer patients in rural areas, accessing palliative care services can be a burden due to the distance needed to travel to a clinic or for an in-home provider to come to them.

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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

FEBRUARY 14, 2023

Offering hospice can be a gamechanger for skilled nursing and assisted living operators looking to stand out from competitors and improve patient reach. Home-based care, including hospice, has become an increasingly attractive space for facility-based health care providers of all walks. Among the 1.6 Among the 1.6

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 21, 2023

Assessing clinician satisfaction and streamlining onboarding can pay off for hospices when it comes to staff retention. Hospices have poured dollars into retention amid widespread workforce shortages exacerbated by the pandemic. We know that satisfied staff make satisfied patients,” Hamilton Fried told Hospice News.

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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% As many as 72.2%

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Hospice News

AUGUST 8, 2022

AccentCare has leveraged telehealth services as a means of reducing the length of hospital stays for patients who are recieving fragmented care. Virtual care became a necessity after the pandemic struck, and most hospice providers were quick to invest in and build out their telehealth programs. Federal law allows the U.S.

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Hospice News

JULY 11, 2023

Increased regulatory and clinical oversight is needed to address common billing and documentation errors related to hospice general inpatient care, according to the U.S. Roughly one-third of Medicare claims for general inpatient hospice services (GIP) are billed in error, the OIG indicated.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 17, 2022

Early access to advance care planning can be a vehicle for greater health equity among underserved Latino communities, recent research has shown. As with other demographic groups, hospice utilization among Hispanic, Latino and Latinx populations is low in comparison to Caucasians. Hispanics made up 6.7%

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Hospice News

AUGUST 22, 2022

The hospice chaplain shortage is reaching a tipping point. As they work to recruit and retain their chaplain labor force, hospices are contending with a barrage of issues that also can impact patient access. When someone is overwhelmed, it is impossible for them to provide quality care.”. A shrinking labor pool.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 1, 2022

“Medicare hasn’t comprehensively assessed the quality of care patients received, and lacks data on telehealth services delivered in patients’ homes or via phone,” GAO indicated in a recent report. Last month, a consortium of 336 health care providers and other stakeholders wrote to U.S. While the U.S.

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Hospice News

JULY 8, 2022

Speedy hospice patient admissions can lead to improved referral numbers, profitability and length of stay, recent data show Yet, hospices need to carefully navigate their patient admission processes to maximize their revenue. A little more than three-quarters (76%) of hospices surveyed admitted patients within four hours.

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Hospice News

JUNE 22, 2023

Recent allegations that staff at HCA Healthcare (NYSE: HCA) put pressure on patients to enter hospice dovetail with longstanding questions over how and when patients should be referred. SEIU benchmarked HCA’s hospice transfer rates against national data. It’s hard to say that you have proof. This looks really questionable.”

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Hospice News

NOVEMBER 4, 2022

Regulators have been keeping an increasingly close watch on hospice providers, and this may intensify in 2023. Moving into next year, hospices have a spectrum of crucial issues on their plates. Hospice will have a lot going on in the regulatory space next year. What do hospices need to be focused on and ready for?

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AT Home Care & Hospice

JANUARY 16, 2024

Amid the routine of medications, doctor’s appointments, and self-care, it’s easy to lose sight of what brings you joy in life. This is where mindfulness, a simple yet profound The post Navigating Life with Grace: Mindfulness for Chronic Conditions appeared first on AT Home Care & Hospice.

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Hospice News

JULY 8, 2022

Hospice referrals appear to be going up. But many patients who get the referral never receive the care due to low health literacy and social determinant of health factors. When the [hopital] patient is discharged, thosewho have instructions to seek hospice are making up a greater percentage of that pool,” Bakkun told Hospice News.

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Hospice News

APRIL 24, 2023

When Interim HealthCare and Caring Brands International CEO Jennifer Sheets speaks about hospice length of stay, it “strikes a nerve.” A disconnect exists between the ways providers perceive hospice lengths of stay and the views of regulators. That is a big miss on the part of CMS and the government,” Sheets told Hospice News.

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Adobe Hospice & Home Health

JANUARY 16, 2024

Amid the routine of medications, doctor’s appointments, and self-care, it’s easy to lose sight of what brings you joy in life. This is where mindfulness, a simple yet profound The post Navigating Life with Grace: Mindfulness for Chronic Conditions appeared first on Abode Hospice & Home Health.

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Hospice News

NOVEMBER 11, 2022

recently introduced legislation aimed at improving access to advance care planning services among patients with serious illness. The Improving Access to Advance Care Planning Act would expand utilization of these services by removing Medicare payment barriers faced by both providers and patients. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.)

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Hospice News

JUNE 10, 2022

The labor pressures in the hospice community are straining clinical operations, but the issue is also becoming a more pressing concern when it comes to mergers and acquisitions. Hospice M&A has been exploding in recent years amid widespread industry consolidation and the flood of private equity firms entering the space.

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Hospice News

JULY 7, 2022

Dying in America is expensive, putting some patients at risk of losing their homes. The issue of unstable housing has a direct impact on patients’ health care choices and outcomes, including ??a Hospice and palliative care providers have a vested interest in assisting patients experiencing housing insecurity.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 20, 2022

A primary barrier for patient and family access to palliative care is a lack of standardized definition and payment mechanism. Without an established palliative care benefit or universally recognized definition in place, care delivery models, patient experiences and reimbursement of palliative care services vary widely across the nation.

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Traditions Health

JUNE 19, 2023

What Are the Four Levels of Hospice Care? Hospice care  is for patients who have a life threatening or terminal illness and their life expectancy is six months or less if their disease process runs its normal course. Routine Home Care Routine home  care  for hospice patients is covered by Medicare part A.

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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. Is Bereavement Care Going High Tech?

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