Hospice News

MARCH 26, 2024

Though many expect a hospice M&A rebound in 2024, the scales are tipping in favor of home health companies among buyers. After 2023’s slump, PE firms have been sitting on more than $800 million in dry powder, according to data shared with Hospice News by The Braff Group. But additional data point to a resurgence.

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Hospice News

MAY 1, 2024

The impending demise of the hospice component of U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ value-based insurance design (VBID) model has largely been met with a sense of relief by providers as they plan new initiatives for palliative care in 2025. That problem was mirrored in the environment outside of the program.

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Hospice News

MARCH 20, 2024

A diverse range of health care providers have forged a pathway to palliative care services with an aim to improve quality outcomes among a growing seriously ill population. We’re now seeing a little bit more reach into the skilled nursing facilities that provide palliative care as well.

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Hospice News

MAY 3, 2024

Compassus and Bon Secours Mercy Health (BSMH) have finalized an agreement to form a home health and hospice joint venture. Through the JV, Compassus will operate 10 home health agencies and 11 hospice locations previously managed by BSMH. Then you also look at what integrated home-based care can do for the ecosystem.

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 18, 2023

A revolution is needed in hospice care, complete with a new mindset, updated care models and redesigned payment systems, Dr Monisha Pujari, medical director for Longleaf Hospice, told Hospice News. Hospice News spoke with Pujari about her vision for hospice care and what it would take to make it a reality.

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Hospice News

APRIL 15, 2024

Though the Medicare Advantage hospice carve-in is going away at the end of this year, those operators still have a role to play in value-based care. The carve-in, formally known as the hospice component of the value-based insurance design model (VBID), will expire on Dec. Hospice care saves Medicare roughly $3.5

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Hospice News

APRIL 12, 2024

Specialized nursing facility clinicians, or SNFists, have a strong potential to reduce hospitalizations and improve quality of care at the end of life, including access to hospice. Terminally ill nursing home often undergo burdensome experience burdensome transitions of care that adversely affect quality.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 16, 2024

Croix Hospice recently unveiled data showing how the company leveraged predictive analytics technology to improve quality outcomes. In 2019 the Minnesota-headquartered hospice provider began utilizing a predictive analytics tool from Medalogix. Croix Hospice. Through the predictive analytics data, hospice patients at St.

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Hospice News

APRIL 8, 2024

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) 2025 proposed hospice rule contained requests for information (RFIs) that could signal changes in the agency’s thinking on key issues. Through RFIs, CMS tries to take the pulse of providers’ positions on certain questions that could impact the Medicare Hospice Benefit.

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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 6, 2024

Coastal Hospice & Palliative Care recently began exploring ways to improve clinical outcomes during the last days of life, an important quality measure in end-of-life care. Established in 1980, Maryland-based Coastal Hospice serves four counties in its home state.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

Florida-based nonprofit Alivia Care is focused on gearing up for value-based systems in 2024. Alivia Care came into existence in 2020 when Community Hospice & Palliative Care, now an affiliate, formed a larger company with a wider range of services. What are your biggest 2024 focuses, challenges and goals?

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Hospice News

MARCH 29, 2024

The 2025 proposed hospice rule is raising some questions along with payment rates. increase in hospice per diems for 2025. The agency also proposed two new quality measures and 2025 implementation of the Hospice Outcome and Patient Evaluation (HOPE) assessment tool to replace the Hospice Item Set.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 26, 2024

Recent research has uncovered ties between improved hospice utilization rates among patients receiving home health services. Researchers from New Jersey-based Rutgers University’s School of Nursing have found that patient preferences leaned toward home-based hospice services following home health experiences.

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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. More transactions followed, with an initial emphasis on home health. I think you’ll see home health continue to slide.

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Hospice News

MARCH 13, 2024

A range of medical specialties are incorporating palliative care principles into their care models. The trend points to ways that patients might receive palliative services through new avenues, such as geriatrics, primary care or home health care. You ask them questions.

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Hospice News

MARCH 15, 2024

The number of states introducing palliative care Medicaid reimbursement channels has been climbing in recent years. She is also CEO of Torrie Fields & Associates (TFA), a value-based health care consulting company. But questions proliferate around how to shape these programs. Utilization is a totally different ball of wax.

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Hospice News

APRIL 17, 2024

The lines of palliative and psychiatric services may increasingly intersect as demand for collaborative care swells among seriously ill populations with mental health conditions. The most challenging cases are patients with severe mental illness and severe medical illness,” Krishnasamy told Palliative Care News.

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 14, 2023

Issues of fraud in the hospice industry echo events that previously affected the home health space, and providers can learn from that prior experience. This is according to Bill Dombi, president of the National Association for Home Care and Hospice (NAHC), who spoke Thursday in a Relias webinar.

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 12, 2023

Program integrity issues that have heated up in the hospice space during the past five years reached a boiling point in 2023. Hospice providers have seen an array of increased regulatory oversight in 2023. There is scrutiny on hospice care [that’s] setting the stage for the next phase of what hospice oversight looks like.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 12, 2023

Caregivers can be a key to reducing hospice revocations and the associated emergency department costs, according to Benjamin Swig, director of Acadian Health. He is also director of health care innovation and strategy at Acadian Companies, parent organization of Acadian Health. Photo courtesy of Acadian Health.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 12, 2024

Gentiva Health Services has committed to expanding its recently established Advanced Illness Management (AIM) palliative care model in 2024, including its unique approach to reimbursement. The company has its roots in the former Kindred at Home. Once among the nation’s largest home health and hospice providers, Humana Inc.

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Hospice News

MARCH 29, 2024

New York City-based NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue recently launched a new palliative care unit. A driving force behind the palliative care unit’s launch has been rising demand among seriously ill patients entering the hospital at various points in their health trajectories, according to Cohen. million patients.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 9, 2024

Community-based nonprofit hospices can help blaze a trail towards a better future in American health care. This will be a core philosophy underlying Blue Ridge Hospice’s strategic goals for years to come, according to the company’s recently appointed CEO Jason Parsons. That program will be opening soon.

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GeriPal

MARCH 7, 2024

Despite this, in my 20-year career as a palliative care physician, I have yet to see a death doula in the wild. I’m unsure what they do, how often they’re used, and who pays for their work. So, on today’s podcast, we try to get to the bottom of what exactly is an end-of-life doula. Starting bar is Luckys Indoor/Outdoor.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 13, 2024

Going forward, hospice and other post-acute providers are preparing to operate within a value-based ecosystem, and Florida-based nonprofit Chapters Health System is no exception. Chapters provides hospice, palliative care and a range of other services throughout Florida. What are your big priorities?

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 16, 2024

Hospice providers are increasingly focused on memory care settings and physician offices as referral sources. Though many hospices see facility-based care as their primary referral engines, a growing base of providers are seeking ties to community-based organizations to increase access and utilization this year.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 24, 2023

Revocations of the hospice benefit can have serious adverse effects on patients and families, as well as providers. Live discharges can occur for a number of reasons, including the patient or family changing their minds about receiving hospice care, or the patient improves and no longer needs those services. About 15.4%

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 14, 2024

Hospices are reaching an inflection point when it comes to breaking down communication barriers around spiritual care among underserved communities, according to William Williamson, who recently became the new director of faith outreach at AMOREM. What has been your experience in hospice thus far?

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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

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. It’s not M&A.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 3, 2023

Hospice will continue to be in a state of flux this year and next, with a heavy focus on regulation and supporting and growing the workforce, according to Ben Marcantonio, COO and interim CEO for the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO). What else is top of mind for you as you’re looking ahead to 2024?

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Hospice News

APRIL 25, 2024

NYSE: CHE) subsidiary VITAS Healthcare is ramping up its strategic growth plans in both hospice and palliative care amid rising demand for these services. VITAS earlier this month completed its $85 million acquisition of Covenant Health and Community Services’ hospice operations and one assisted living facility location.

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Hospice News

MARCH 22, 2024

Hospice providers need to evolve with their changing patient populations and the larger health care system, according to Greg Hagfors, CEO of Partners In Care. A group of volunteers had brought the hospice concept from the United Kingdom to Oregon, according to Hagfors. Do you anticipate further diversification?

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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

JANUARY 18, 2024

Without family caregivers, most hospice and palliative care patients would be unable to receive care in the home. The model comes at a time when dementia-related illnesses are on the rise among hospice patients. The model comes at a time when dementia-related illnesses are on the rise among hospice patients.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 16, 2024

Compassus is launching a home health and hospice joint venture with Ohio-headquartered Bon Secours Mercy Health (BSMH). Through the JV, Compassus will manage the operations of 11 hospice agencies and 10 home health sites across five states. These partnerships are grounded in those objectives,” Grams told Hospice News.

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