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VA Study Finds 95% Increase in Palliative Care Utilization When Patients Have Access to Social Workers

Hospice News

Patients are more likely to receive palliative care if they can access social workers through their primary care providers, Veterans Health Administration (VA) research has found. These findings suggest that social workers may increase access to and/or use of palliative care.”.

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Hospices Stepping Up Performance on Visits-in-Last-Days-of-Life Measure

Hospice News

The number of registered nurse and social worker visits during a patient’s final week is one of the seven quality measures that CMS uses to evaluate providers. Social worker visits in the last days of life also rose to 9% in 2021, up from 7% in 2020. CMS introduced SIA in 2016.

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Advance Care Planning Billing Rules Impede Equitable Access

Hospice News

Across 150 different studies, white adults represented nearly two-thirds (65.1%) of roughly 800,000 individuals who had completed advance directives between 2011 and 2016. Currently, this includes only physicians, physician assistants, clinical nurse specialists and nurse practitioners, along with clinical social workers. “If

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Facility-Bound Hospice Patients Less Likely to Get SIA Visits

Hospice News

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) introduced SIA in 2016. It allows hospices to bill on an hourly basis for registered nurse and social worker visits during the last seven days of a patient’s life, in addition to the standard per diem reimbursement.

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Capital Caring Health to Expand Home-Based Primary Care Service

Hospice News

million home-based primary care visits during 2016, up from less than 1 million in 1996, the study found. million primary care visits in 2016. Patients in the United States received more than 2.2 Patients in assisted living facilities, group homes and other facilities received 3.2

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How Medicare Budget Neutrality Impacts Hospice Payment

Hospice News

An earlier version of budget neutrality was phased out in 2016. CMS introduced SIA in 2016 to allow hospices to bill for RHC at the continuous home care rate on an hourly basis for registered nurse and social worker visits during the last seven days of a patient’s life. These reductions occur within each service.

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The Case for Integrating Social Determinants Into Palliative Care

Hospice News

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. Programs to address social determinants have likewise been found to reduce health care expenditures.