Hospice News

APRIL 29, 2022

The Medicare Advantage hospice carve-in has been the focus of much attention among providers, and many are watching closely for the demonstration’s outcomes. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) launched the MCCM in 2016 to explore the idea of allowing hospice patients to receive concurrent curative care.

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Hospice News

NOVEMBER 7, 2023

Allowing patients to receive concurrent hospice and curative care reduces health care costs and improves quality. The agency launched the MCCM in 2016. We really didn’t find subgroups that were not benefiting from the model,” Kranker told Hospice News. “We

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Hospice News

JANUARY 5, 2023

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently reported the results of its audit of advance care planning (ACP) billing practices among Medicare-certified physicians and other health care providers. Office settings accounted for 61% of all ACP billing between 2016 and 2019, according to OIG.

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Hospice News

JUNE 15, 2023

After more than a decade working in hospice leadership, Alli Collins came across something she had never seen before — a financially viable, all-volunteer provider that is not Medicare-certified. I am the new executive director for Hospice and Palliative Care of the Wood River Valley. Even the nurses just volunteered their time.

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 1, 2022

Gavin Newsom (D) recently approved legislation that expands upon last years’ moves to strengthen hospice oversight in the state, among other enforcement actions. The bills — Senate Bill 664 and Assembly Bill 1280 — followed a Los Angeles Times investigation into alleged misconduct among hospice providers statewide. California Gov.

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Hospice News

AUGUST 21, 2024

The Dallas-based home health and hospice provider Intrepid USA will pay $3.85 The company was accused of enrolling patients for both home health and hospice services who were not eligible. The company was accused of enrolling patients for both home health and hospice services who were not eligible. Department of Justice.

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Hospice News

JULY 26, 2024

A hospice physician in California is facing up to a decade in prison after pleading guilty for their involvement in a kickback fraud scheme that bilked Medicare of nearly $30 million. Contreras served as a physician for two Pasadena-based providers, Saint Mariam Hospice Inc. and Arcadia Hospice Provider Inc.

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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. Between 2013 and 2016, the company billed Medicare for $62 million and received $47 million in payments, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

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Hospice News

MARCH 14, 2024

Hospices, in aggregate, are showing improvement on the quality measure for visits in the last days of life. In Calendar Year 2021, the share of hospice care days with nurse visits in the last seven days of life rose to 63%, up from 62% year over year, according to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO).

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Hospice News

APRIL 22, 2024

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) proposed rule designed to strengthen oversight of those institutions. Three such organizations currently have deeming authority for hospices, The Joint Commission, the Accreditation Commission for Health Care (ACHC) and Community Health Accreditation Partner (CHAP).

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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

APRIL 6, 2023

Two hospice fraud cases are moving forward in California and Arizona, states that some stakeholders consider to be potential hotbeds of malfeasance in the space. False Claims Act violations in California San Gabriel Hospice & Palliative Care submitted roughly $3.67 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare, of which $3.18

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Hospice News

AUGUST 14, 2023

Among those demos is the Medicare Care Choices Model (MCCM), which ran between 2016 and 2021. Community-based palliative care has the potential to improve end-of-life care and Medicare program costs.” Palliative care also decreased ED visits by 14% and inpatient admissions by 26% while boosting hospice enrollment by 29%.

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Hospice News

JULY 11, 2022

A group of 17 Illinois health care organizations is collaborating to expand access to home-based primary care, including a number of hospice and palliative care providers. million seniors who reside in Illinois are 85 or older, and 40% of Medicare beneficiaries in the state have four or more chronic conditions, according to HCCI.

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 2, 2022

Closing these gaps is a rising priority in payment model demonstrations by the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI). The work being done at CMMI has a direct impact on hospice providers. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The center is a component of the U.S.

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 19, 2023

Residential Hospice has acquired Illinois-based Safe Haven Hospice from the senior living provider Christian Horizons for an undisclosed sum. More than 57,000 Illinois residents enrolled in hospice during 2021, a utilization rate of about 47%, according to the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

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Hospice News

MARCH 27, 2023

Hospice providers in facility-based settings may be underutilizing Medicare’s service intensity add-on (SIA). Researchers analyzed 2020 claims data to identify associations between SIA utilization and hospice Medicare beneficiaries’ characteristics such as site of service, level of care and length of stay, among others.

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Hospice News

MARCH 13, 2024

As hospice program integrity remains in the spotlight, California remains the only state to take action on curbing the problem. Beginning in 2021, numerous reports emerged of unethical or illegal practices among hundreds of newly licensed hospices, particularly among new companies popping up in California, Texas, Nevada and Arizona.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 27, 2023

Medicare Advantage (MA) beneficiaries are more likely to enroll in hospice from a community setting than patients in traditional fee-for-service programs. million patients who elected hospice in the last 90 days of life during the years 2011, 2013, 2016 and 2018. This is close to half of all Medicare beneficiaries.

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 20, 2023

Guaranteed’s New SVP of Growth, Strategy Tech-enabled hospice startup Guaranteed has named Ryan Malone as its new senior vice president of growth and strategy. Previously, he was head of growth at Mavencare, and served in sales manager and director roles at Hometeam from 2013 to 2016. The funding follows a $6.5

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Hospice News

NOVEMBER 16, 2022

NYSE: HCA) and the University of Central Florida (UCF) recently added a new graduate fellowship in hospice and palliative care medicine to their existing repertoire of training programs. Demand for culturally diverse hospice and palliative care in Florida is growing as minority aging populations swell. Utah held the highest rate at 60.5%

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Hospice News

JUNE 21, 2023

Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and 59 bipartisan co-sponsors have reintroduced legislation that would expand Medicare coverage of telehealth and make permanent flexibilities implemented during the COVID-19 public health emergency. Congress has extended hospices’ ability to do recertifications via telehealth through Dec. Ben Cardin (D-Md.),

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Hospice News

JULY 25, 2022

A federal court has sentenced Liana Karapetyan, former co-owner of California-based ANG Health Care, Excel Hospice, and Excel Home Healthcare, to 18 years in prison for hospice fraud and anti-kickback violations. Atoyan was co-owner of the hospice and home health businesses and has pled guilty for his role in the scheme. “In

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 2, 2022

The recent article by the New Yorker and ProPublica that branded “hospice” as a profiteering “hustle” was an outrageous misrepresentation of the provider community. The National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO), for instance, filed an amicus brief with the court. Even when a hospice plays by the rules, death does not.

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Hospice News

JULY 10, 2023

As health care stakeholders work to improve care coordination, more hospices are exploring home-based primary care. Organizations that are delivering hospice and palliative care now are looking to the future and wanting to provide more of a full-service solution for seriously ill patients,” Singleton told Hospice News.

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Hospice News

JUNE 27, 2022

Social and economic factors like these drive 40% of health outcomes, according to the Better Medicare Alliance. The interdisciplinary nature of palliative care, especially the inclusion of social workers, positions palliative care nicely to help to address the myriad needs that people have,” Maxwell told Hospice News.

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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. And while hospices offer social workers and spiritual care, many families continue to have unmet needs that could impede some patients’ access to hospice.

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Hospice News

APRIL 28, 2023

When it comes to value-based payment models, home health has a head start on hospice. But those providers’ experiences can lend some insights into how hospices can prepare themselves. Hospices are only now taking their first steps into value-based reimbursement.

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Hospice News

AUGUST 24, 2023

Increased hospice oversight aimed at curbing fraud in the industry could come with a mixed bag of financial and operational impacts for providers. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has honed in on hospice program integrity, rolling out a swath of new measures to reduce fraud, waste and abuse in the space.

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Hospice News

MAY 17, 2024

The court also ordered Akula to repay $42 million in fraudulent Medicare billing claims made between January 2013 and December 2019, which totaled roughly $84 million during that six-year span. The charges included fraudulent claims for physician services and home visits, as well as manipulation of Medicare billing codes.

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 24, 2022

Careful management of hospice care manager workloads correlates with longer lengths of stay. For many patients length of stay is a week or less, which is too short for them to receive the full benefit of hospice care. Among the hospices that BerryDunn surveyed, 88% of the best performers kept case managers’ workloads between 13 to 18.

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 11, 2024

ACOs are groups of physicians, hospitals and other health care providers who come together voluntarily to give coordinated high-quality care to their Medicare patients. A 2016 study in the Journal of Palliative Medicine that showed organizations could save as much as $10,000 a month for patients who were getting in-home palliative care.

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Hospice News

JANUARY 12, 2023

A federal court has sentenced Akop Atoyan, former co-owner of three California home health and hospice agencies, to 25 months in prison for health care fraud and kickback schemes. He and his wife Liana Karapetyan owned ANG Health Care, Excel Hospice, and Excel Home Healthcare in the Sacramento area. Atoyan pled guilty to the changes.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 4, 2022

The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) is developing new reimbursement pathways for palliative care. As part of that process, CMMI is applying elements of its Medicare Care Choices Model (MCCM) demonstration, which ended Dec. MCCM was designed to test the impact of concurrent hospice and curative care.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 4, 2022

has acquired Trio Home Health Care and Hospice, growing its reach in the Lone Star State, which is a key focus area for the company. This latest acquisition fills our quest to expand our geographic footprint within our primary service areas,” said Jet Health CEO Stace Bratcher in a statement shared with Hospice News.

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Hospice News

AUGUST 30, 2022

Michigan-headquartered Residential Hospice has acquired Comfort Hospice in Missouri and Grace Hospice in Ohio for undisclosed amounts. Residential purchased the two hospices from health care company U.S. Medical Management will retain its hospice locations outside of St. Hospice utilization in Missouri reached 50.2%

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Hospice News

JULY 7, 2022

The depletion of a family’s financial resources is a greater predictor of aggressive treatment at the end of life than patient preferences or demographic factors, a 2016 study concluded. of Medicare Advantage individual plans offered the general supports benefit, as well as only 10.3% Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

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