Hospice News

JANUARY 3, 2024

Hackensack Meridian Health is testing the utilization of predictive analytics technology to improve timely hospice transitions. It’s a gentle nudge to help us take the best care of our patients.” For example, if a patient’s likelihood of death is found to be 70% or higher, clinical teams receive notifications for hospice evaluations.

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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. told Hospice News.

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 19, 2023

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) should clarify timeframes associated with a proposed informal dispute resolution process for hospice providers and retool aspects of the agency’s forthcoming Special Focus Program, according to an industry group representing nonprofits. CMS states.” million annually.

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Hospice News

JANUARY 11, 2023

Hospices should be required to report all instances of abuse and neglect, even if the perpetrator was not an employee, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has recommended. This would bring the hospice rules in line with those used in long term care. NAHC also called on the U.S.

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Hospice News

NOVEMBER 10, 2023

The four largest hospice industry organizations are urging congressional lawmakers to mandate changes to the Special Focus Program (SFP) currently set to begin in 2024. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) last week issued its 2024 home health payment rule , which contained several hospice provisions.

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Hospice News

MARCH 29, 2023

On the matter of hospice program integrity, policymakers have many questions and few answers. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra appeared yesterday on Capitol Hill for a hearing on President Biden’s proposed federal budget, during which several Congress members raised the issue of hospice fraud.

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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

MARCH 16, 2023

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) has once again recommended a 20% cut to the aggregate cap for hospice payments. But when it comes to the payment cap, two key metrics stand out: length of stay and margins. of hospices exceeded the cap, MedPAC estimated. During 2020, about 18.6% In 2015, for instance, 12.5%

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Hospice News

NOVEMBER 21, 2023

An expansion of “death literacy” is necessary to improve end-of-life care in the United States, according to Michael Connelly, former CEO of Mercy Health. Hospice News spoke with Connelly about the importance of death literacy and how to pursue it. Michael Connelly, author and former CEO of Mercy Health What is death literacy?

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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

JANUARY 2, 2024

Fragmented health care has significant ties to adverse outcomes in patients with chronic or serious illnesses. Palliative care providers’ ability to navigate the health care system, coordinate the delivery of care, interact regularly with patients, and facilitate communication between providers can reduce this fragmentation.

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Hospice News

APRIL 5, 2023

Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) may imperil hospice patients’ access to essential medications, stakeholders have indicated. This includes drugs that are frequently used in hospice and palliative care. “We Pain management is a cornerstone of hospice care and can have a substantial impact on patient and family satisfaction.

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Hospice News

JANUARY 17, 2023

Language barriers, mistrust of the health care system and a lack of diverse staff are the most common obstacles between hospice care and underserved communities, research from the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) recently found.

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Hospice News

AUGUST 2, 2023

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) recently finalized hospice payment rule. The concern, however, is that hospices lack the financial support and incentives needed to bridge barriers, with reimbursement a main point of contention, he said.

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Hospice News

JUNE 22, 2022

As hospices explore greater participation in alternative payment models, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) is urging Congress to reduce and restructure those programs. Hospice providers have been eying APMs emerging for the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI).

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Hospice News

AUGUST 11, 2022

Proposed federal legislation could advance the development of an evidence-based definition of “high-quality” bereavement care. Considered “report language,” the bereavement portion of the bill is a recommendation to federal agencies to pursue its stated objectives. In addition, these services are not reimbursed.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 17, 2023

The emotional toll of caring for the seriously ill contributes to high rates of burnout among palliative care workers. For palliative care clinicians, that apathy can lead to the depersonalization of patients, negatively affecting patient care. Burnout is a state of complete mental, physical and emotional exhaustion.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 31, 2023

However, gauging the potential impacts of psychedelic utilization among grieving individuals requires careful consideration when assessing quality outcomes, according to Ryan Moss, chief science officer at Filament Health Corp. The clinical-stage natural psychedelic drug development company is based in British Columbia, Canada.

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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

SEPTEMBER 7, 2022

A group of health plans, policymakers, and insurance companies recently told the Center for Medicare & Medicare Innovation (CMMI) that they needed a standardized definition for palliative care in order to improve access. First, it’s not just one provider who is delivering palliative care.

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Definition Palliative care Palliate Medicare 289

Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 22, 2022

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released a National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers to assist those who care for seriously ill loved ones. I know the importance of this first-hand, as someone who cared for my late father and navigated the challenges associated with caregiving.”.

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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

JANUARY 26, 2023

North Carolina-based Hospice & Palliative Care of Iredell County (HPCIC) has partnered with a local technical school to develop educational videos for family caregivers. The community-based provider offers care in the home, at hospitals and in assisted living or skilled nursing facilities in the region.

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Hospice News

AUGUST 21, 2023

Evolving network adequacy requirements within the value-based insurance design (VBID) model demonstration have some hospices concerned that Medicare Advantage payers may have narrowed views on reimbursement and access. And that’s a big concern when it comes to hospice care.” This year the U.S.

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Hospice News

JULY 5, 2022

The availability of post-acute resources, including hospice and palliative care, has a significant impact on hospital readmissions, but greater coordination among providers could drive improvement. CMS has since rolled all of its former quality rating sites into its Care Compare online database.).

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Hospice News

MAY 19, 2022

Hospice providers and patients are having difficulty procuring medications due to nationwide drug shortages, threatening quality of care and patients’ access to hospice. Medication shortages can serve as a barrier to transitioning to hospice,” Paglino told Hospice News in an email. NYSE: CHEM).

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Hospice News

MARCH 5, 2024

In case you missed it, Hospice News has launched a new specialty publication for palliative care professionals. You can subscribe to Palliative Care News here: Subscribe today! The Medicare Advantage hospice carve-in will be carved back out by the end of this year.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 2, 2023

Given the critical role of family caregivers in home-based care, hospices have a vested interest in expanding their access to support. Families caring for seriously ill loved ones face systemic barriers that could threaten patients’ ability to receive care at home, including at the end of life.

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NHPCO

JANUARY 12, 2024

During yesterday’s public meetings, the MedPAC Commissioners unanimously voted in favor of the Chair’s hospice recommendation, which will be included in the Commission’s report to Congress in March 2024. While MedPAC is not a policy-setting body, its recommendations do bear weight among policymakers and lawmakers.

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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. We’ve invited two death doulas, Jane Euler and John Loughnane (who is also a family doc and palliative care physician), to talk about the role of a doula at the end of life. Starting bar is Luckys Indoor/Outdoor.

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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. A large contingent of these companies were established with the purpose of selling the license at a profit, with little concern for patient care. This prompted the U.S.

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Hospice News

AUGUST 12, 2022

million following reports by hospice employees who cared for their residents. Department of Justice alleged that the Indiana-based company billed Medicare separately for services that should have been covered by the hospice benefit. The hospice workers filed a qui tam complaint against ASC in the U. Attorney Zachary A.

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 20, 2023

Recent research has tied nurses’ insufficient knowledge of palliative care to underutilization of those services in various countries worldwide. It can be seen that nurses’ mastery of palliative care knowledge is not sufficient,” researchers said in the BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care analysis. “It

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Hospice News

AUGUST 19, 2022

Researchers recently found that “trigger systems” signaling when a patient may need palliative care can boost utilization of those services, as well as advance care planning and hospice admissions. Identifying triggers for palliative care. The bulk of these (223) occurred within the first month.

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Hospice News

JANUARY 12, 2024

Some hospice providers have hit roadblocks when it comes to navigating needs determination methodologies certificate of need (CON) laws in certain states, citing outdated processes for assessing underserved populations. The data used to determine the barriers to entry, that methodology is antiquated,” Allison told Hospice News.

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Hospice News

JANUARY 2, 2024

As auditing activity by regulators continues to spike, hospices need to know how to conduct internal investigations to identify any potential improper payments. billion in improper payments during 2023, though a smaller proportion of those dollars went to hospices than in years prior. Hospices received nearly 5.4%

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GeriPal

APRIL 26, 2024

Summary Transcript Summary As Betty Ferrell says on our podcast today, nurses play an essential role in care of people with serious illness. Doing home care? Hospice visits? As I argue on the podcast, ELNEC has likely done more to lift the primary palliative care skills of clinicians than any other initiative.

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