This site uses cookies to improve your experience. To help us insure we adhere to various privacy regulations, please select your country/region of residence. If you do not select a country, we will assume you are from the United States. Select your Cookie Settings or view our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Used for the proper function of the website
Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Strictly Necessary: Used for the proper function of the website
Performance/Analytics: Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
The soon-to-be-implemented hospice Special Focus Program (SFP) from the U.S. The Alliance was formed by the merger this year of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization and the National Association for Home Health & Hospice. “We The program, set to begin Jan. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Hospice News spoke with a group of industry leaders about the most pressing market forces and trends that will shape the space during 2025. They also spoke about the need for greater integration of hospice into the larger health care continuum and the benefits of operators broadening their scope of services. Heath Bartness, CEO, St.
Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas) and Jimmy Panetta (D-California) have introduced a bill that would reform aspects of the hospice Special Focus Program (SFP). If enacted, the Enhancing Hospice Oversight and Transparency Act also would increase the penalty for hospices that do not report quality measure data to 10% by 2027, up from 4% currently.
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has made public its first cohort for the hospice Special Focus Program (SFP). Finalized in the 2024 home health payment rule, the program is designed to identify poor performing hospices, mandate quality improvement and in some cases impose additional penalties. million annually.
NuHealth is partnering with Hospice of New York to offer inpatient end-of-life care to its patients. By offering inpatient hospice care at NUMC, we are ensuring all of Nassau County’s residents have access to compassionate end-of-life services regardless of their ability to pay,” said Megan C. “By
Hospice News explores the issues garnering growing attention in end-of-life care delivery in seven of this years hidden gem stories. Topics span trends related to program integrity, workforce development, health equity, service diversification and the keys to hospices growth strategies. Optum completed its $5.4
Hospice providers have leveraged data in various ways to both identify and address the biggest barriers to access and unmet needs among underserved terminally ill patient populations. CBPR practices allow hospices to ask deeper questions beyond patient and family health care experiences, such as their values, beliefs and daily challenges.
Nevada lawmakers have introduced a bill to curb hospice fraud in that state. Among the significant changes that the legislation proposed was having newly licensed hospice programs in Nevada undergo enhanced regulatory oversight for the first two years of operations.
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) has recommended to Congress a freeze on hospice payment increases starting in 2026. In its annual report to Congress, MedPAC urged policymakers to eliminate hospice base-rate increases for 2026. The 2021 aggregated Medicare hospice margin was 10.4%, according to MedPAC.
Several executives are stepping into new roles at hospice organizations across the country as the new year draws near. Brand was previously senior vice president of hospice and palliative care at New York-based VNS Health, holding a similar role at CareCentrix prior to that. Nasdaq: PNTG). million in Fiscal Year (FY) 2022.
Total Medicare hospice spending accounted for $25.7 in 2022, but lower than in 2020 and 2021 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Trillion appeared first on Hospice News. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) found. This growth took place at a faster pace in 2023 than prior years. The post U.S.
The Colorado-based hospice provider collaborative Care Synergy has formed a joint venture with RCC Medical Equipment Co. Care Synergy emerged in 2021 as a regional collaborative of hospice companies. Care Synergy emerged in 2021 as a regional collaborative of hospice companies.
A Texas-based physician recently entered a settlement to pay nearly half a million dollars for their alleged involvement in a hospice kickback scheme that transpired roughly four years ago. Patterson is accused of certifying patients for hospice care who did not have a terminal condition and were not eligible to receive these services.
Their comments carried some common threads, including further movement towards value-based care, a need to secure payment through business-to-business partnerships, a need for more concurrent curative and hospice care, and a continued status quo of insufficient reimbursement. Jason Parsons, CEO, Blue Ridge Hospice It is encouraging that [Rep.
But palliative providers have long-faced a challenging reimbursement trajectory in supporting their sustainability, she said during Hospice News virtual Palliative Care Outlook Summit. The post-hospice carve-in landscape left lingering questions around the potential for a widening scope of palliative value-based reimbursement.
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has not responded to congressional concerns about the hospice Special Focus Program (SFP). Set for 2025 implementation, the SFP promises to identify hospices delivering poor quality care and target them for improvement remedies. Van Duyne told Hospice News in an email.
The seed for Texas-based Pallicare was planted at a chance meeting at a 2021 conference between Jonathan Fluhart, a management professional with a background in aerospace, technology, and hospice industries, and nurse practitioner Tiffany Hughes. PalliCare, the partners also decided, would not rely on larger organizations.
A federal judge in Delaware has ordered home health and hospice provider VItalCaring and its private equity backers to share future profits with Encompass Health (NYSE: EHC). The post [UPDATED] Court Orders VitalCaring to Place 43% of Profits into Trust for Encompass Health appeared first on Hospice News.
Hospice acquisitions saw a gentle rebound in Q1 2025. Deal volume is up relative to 2024s slump, but activity has not reached the boom levels of 2020 and 2021. When I say the activity I’m not just talking about closed deals, Mertz Taggart Managing Partner Cory Mertz told Hospice News. So there’s definitely momentum.
Training interdisciplinary staff to identify and address patients nonmedical needs is a significant component of quality palliative care delivery, according to Dr. Tracy Romanello, medical director at Catholic Hospice and Catholic Palliative Care Services. Dr. Tracy Romanello at the Hospice News ELEVATE event.
The pandemic reinforced positive perception of palliative care and increased participants’ understanding of its scope and respondents indicated a need for more palliative care and advocated for their role in future pandemic,” Vesel said in a presentation at the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization’s Annual Leadership Conference.
Choice Health at Home will acquire Accentra Home Health and Hospice, headquartered in Oklahoma City. This will improve the lives of our nurses, there will be less travel time and more density of patients in the metro areas,” Choice Health at Home CEO and Founder David Jackson told Hospice News’ sister site Home Health Care News.
Hospice providers across the country have recently launched new inpatient facilities as 2025 unfolds. The new year may also bring closures of certain hospice programs. VITAS Opens 2 New Locations VITAS Healthcare on Wednesday announced the opening of its new inpatient hospice unit in Fort Worth, Texas. NYSE: CHE) subsidiary.
The health care and technology-focused investment firm Cressey & Company has invested an undisclosed dollar amount in the hospice and palliative care care provider Paradigm Health. Cressey & Company had no comment in response to Hospice News inquiries. We are pleased to be supporting their next phase of growth.
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is extending the value-based insurance design demonstration for calendar years 2025 to 2030, including the hospice component. The hospice component of VBID, also called the MA carve-in, launched in 2021 and was originally slated to complete after four years. It makes sense.
What Hospice VBID means for Palliative Care Palliative cares future reimbursement streams may see impacts with the impending end of the hospice component of U.S. This included the addition of the hospice component in 2021, which was designed to test coverage of those services through Medicare Advantage.
When it comes to hospice acquisitions, buyers and sellers expectations on price tags are becoming more aligned. A surge of deals in 2021 and 2022 led to record-high valuations in the space with multiples reaching in excess of 30x in some instances. However, this doesn’t mean that buying a hospice is a bargain-basement transaction.
payment increase for hospices is insufficient in today’s economic climate, the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) indicated in comments on the 2025 proposed payment rule. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in March issued its 2025 proposed hospice rule, which if finalized would include a 2.6%
Hospice providers, industry groups and other stakeholders recently penned a letter urging Congress to improve payment infrastructures that would increase access to end-of-life care among rural populations. For some rural areas, they’re not seen as financially feasible or sustainable to larger programs,” Kuhlman told Hospice News. “So,
The home health and hospice provider SSM Health at Home has joined the Wisconsin Hospice & Palliative Care Collaborative (WHPCC). WHPCC was incorporated as a 501c3 organization in 2021. Richardson Community Hospice. SSM Health at Home is part of the SSM Health System.
Bristol Hospice has acquired Mississippi-based Mid-Delta Hospice, a move that marked its entry into the state. The decision to launch services in a new state came with growing recognition around rising demand for home health and hospice care, according to Bristol Hospice CEO and President Alex Mauricio.
Hospice have lost social worker employees at a faster rate than any health care setting in the care continuum. . As of October 2021, attrition rates exceeded pre-pandemic levels by 35%. Social work departures were most frequently reported as common in hospices (18%) versus other settings, such as health clinics (9%), the study found.
Implementation of the Medicare Advantage hospice carve-in has been challenging for both payers and providers, though a recent analysis indicates that it may get easier over time. to conduct the analysis of the program, formally called the hospice component of the value-based insurance design model (VBID).
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).
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will end the hospice component of the value-based insurance design model (VBID) as of Dec. Often called the “hospice carve-in,” the program was designed to test coverage of hospice care through Medicare Advantage, in addition to some coverage of palliative care and transitional care.
Hospice of the Western Reserve has completed its affiliation with Hospice of North Central Ohio (HNCO), expanding its geographic presence in the Buckeye state. The two hospice providers in February announced the affiliation after signing a letter of intent to enter a Management Services Agreement. Photo by Pixelate Photography.
The Indiana Association for Home & Hospice Care (IAHHC) has unveiled a new employee support program designed to help with retention of much needed workforce resources in end-of-life care. Connect program was in part driven by increasing recognition of the perils of staff burnout and turnover in home health and hospice. The C.A.R.E.
The two lawmakers, along with others, also brought forth a second bill designed to ensure that hospice patients who need blood transfusions can receive them. Rosen and Murkowski, initially tried to pass the palliative care training bill in 2019, and then again 2021. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) Established in 1972, NHSC is part of the U.S.
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has reiterated that the agency will not allow hospices to recertify patients after the COVID-19 public health emergency expires. . Face-to-face encounters for purposes of patient recertification for the Medicare hospice benefit can now be conducted via telehealth (i.e.,
Massachusetts-based Advanced Home Care has acquired Dignity Hospice Care for an undisclosed amount. The buyer company’s CEO Art Kalenjian will now take the helm at Dignity Hospice. The first patients at the newly acquired Dignity Hospice were able to access the new hospice program in May, according to the press release.
on Wednesday, which will likely have an impact on hospice M&A. Interest rates have widespread implications for the hospice mergers and acquisitions market, particularly when it comes to private equity investments. The post How the Fed’s Interest Rate Cuts Could Affect Hospice M&A appeared first on Hospice News.
Montgomery Hospice & Prince George’s Hospice has signed a memorandum of understanding to affiliate with Virginia-based Blue Ridge Hospice. The move could signal the start of a new hospice collaborative in the mid-Atlantic region. Montgomery Hospice & Prince George’s Hospice is headquartered in Maryland. “We
Maine-based Androscoggin Home Healthcare and Hospice has rebranded as Andwell Health Partners to better reflect its growing suite of services. The company launched in 1966 as a home health company, later adding hospice, palliative, behavioral health and community care services. “As We want to serve as your partner in health for life.”
The hospice component of the value-based insurance design (VBID) model will begin its third year on Jan. Often called the MA hospice carve-in , the voluntary demonstration is designed to assess payer and provider performance related to hospice within Medicare Advantage (MA).
We organize all of the trending information in your field so you don't have to. Join 5,000+ users and stay up to date on the latest articles your peers are reading.
You know about us, now we want to get to know you!
Let's personalize your content
Let's get even more personalized
We recognize your account from another site in our network, please click 'Send Email' below to continue with verifying your account and setting a password.
Let's personalize your content