Hospice News

NOVEMBER 21, 2024

Prolific health disparities have driven hospices to implement various strategies to improve diversity, equity and inclusion among underserved patient populations. Garrett is also executive director of the Virginia-based hospice’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Committee. Hospice utilization rates rose by 4.1%

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 21, 2022

Hospice leaders have kept their eyes on four key numbers as 2022 progressed: clinical capacity, length of stay, labor costs and utilization. A fifth, the rising number of new hospices in certain states, has emerged as a priority in recent weeks. These metrics are key to understanding what hospices experienced this year.

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Hospice News

NOVEMBER 22, 2023

Croix Hospice has expanded its Missouri footprint with a de novo in the Wildwood community. Favorable demographics are among the factors that make Missouri an attractive market for hospices. Croix Hospice often looks for markets in which hospice utilization is comparatively low, including historically underserved rural communities, St.

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Hospice News

AUGUST 23, 2024

Julia Hospice & Palliative Refuels De Novo Plans Pennsylvania-based Julia Hospice & Palliative (JHPC) has reignited plans to launch a de novo after experiencing pandemic-related setbacks. Dubbed Julia House, the facility will provide inpatient hospice and serve as an outpatient palliative care clinic.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 5, 2023

Hospice of Northwest Ohio is buying the operations of ProMedica Ebeid Hospice Residence. ProMedica’s Ebeid Hospice Residence is a 12-bed inpatient facility that opened in 2008, attached to ProMedica’s Flower Hospital campus. The purchase gives Hospice of Northwest Ohio an inpatient facility in Sylvania, Ohio. “We

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Evidence-Based Nursing - BMJ blogs

NOVEMBER 6, 2022

This blog does not intend to revisit this pathway, but to raise awareness that as healthcare professionals, we have and always will have only one chance to get it right in palliative and end of life care. What is Palliative and End of Life Care? In October each year we recognise Hospice Care Week.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 7, 2024

The Hospice of North Central Ohio (HNCO) will affiliate with Hospice of Western Reserve, also located in the Buckeye state. Hospice of the Western Reserve is one of the leading nonprofit hospice agencies in the nation and shares our values for patient and family care,” Mary Knowlton, HCNO’s board president, said in a statement.

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Hospice News

JUNE 7, 2023

Hospice leaders and lawmakers are meeting on Capitol Hill today to address the pressing issue of program integrity, among other policy priorities. Thus far, California is the only state to take action on the issue, beginning with a moratorium on new hospice licenses and an extensive audit of California’s oversight processes.

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Hospice News

AUGUST 26, 2024

Hospice and palliative care provider VIA Health has long invested in disease-specific programs. The numbers have continued to grow in terms of building these quality indicators to ensure that heart failure patients get adequate and high-value, quality end-of-life care in their trajectory and get enrolled in hospice and palliative care.”

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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

AUGUST 1, 2024

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.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 26, 2022

Shradha Aiyer, vice president of products at Axxess, has been named a 2022 Future Leader by Hospice News. The program is designed to recognize up-and-coming industry members who are shaping the next decade of senior housing, skilled nursing, home health, and hospice care. What drew you to this field?

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 13, 2024

Plano, Texas-based Heart to Heart Hospice will soon add a third location to its geographic footprint in Oklahoma. The de novo will open this fall, located in Durant, Oklahoma, and serve hospice patients and their families across 11 surrounding counties. Demographics are driving demand for hospice in Oklahoma. Census Bureau.

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 12, 2023

Medicare Advantage organization SCAN Group has invested an undisclosed dollar amount in tech-enabled hospice startup Guaranteed. The move comes nearly a year after California-based Guaranteed launched in August 2022, when founder and CEO Jessica McGlory began her own provider company two years after her father passed away.

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Hospice News

APRIL 11, 2024

Black Americans are frequently denied access to hospice and palliative care due to structural racism, and many of those communities lack sufficient information to make end-of-life care decisions, new research has found. Access to hospice and palliative care is perceived as lacking.

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Hospice News

MAY 9, 2024

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on continuing evidence of hospice fraud and quality issues. We must urgently address the bad actors who are abusing the hospice benefit and harming patients and families,” the legislators wrote in the letter. “We Coupled with the fraud issue are those associated with quality of care.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 8, 2024

Francis Reflections Lifestage Care and Treasure Coast Health on Tuesday completed their affiliation, a move nearly a year in the making after the two Florida-based nonprofits signaled they would join forces. Combined, the two organizations provide hospice and palliative care to more than 7,000 patients annually across Brevard, Martin, St.

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Hospice News

JANUARY 2, 2023

The number of hospice volunteers plunged during the first two years of the pandemic, and many are still working to rebuild their ranks. Many hospices saw volunteer volumes dip drastically as they suspended activities during the pandemic. We calculated out $76,514 around volunteer cost savings last year,” Conway told Hospice News.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 25, 2024

VITAS Launches New Florida Location VITAS Healthcare has opened a new location in Florida, expanding the hospice provider’s footprint in its home state. The location will serve as a hub for staff providing hospice services across Pasco County, where seniors 65 and older represent 21.8% Dozier Hospice House.

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 5, 2023

The home health and hospice provider recently announced the leadership changes in a filing with the U.S. Scott Ginn held the role since November 2022 prior to Guidroz’s ascension. “In The company in June announced plans to acquire the massive home health and hospice provider Amedisys for $3.3 In connection with Ms.

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Hospice News

MARCH 15, 2024

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) has recommended to Congress a freeze on hospice payment increases starting in 2025. In its annual report to Congress, MedPAC urged policymakers to eliminate hospice base-rate increases for 2025. The 2021 aggregated Medicare hospice margin was 13.3%, according to MedPAC.

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Hospice News

JUNE 23, 2023

The Illinois Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (IL-HPCO) has penned a three-year association management contract with The HAP Foundation to provide counsel and operational support. The foundation also offers consulting in end-of-life care and expanding the community health worker profession.

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Hospice News

JULY 28, 2023

The Denver Hospice – an affiliate of the Care Synergy network – has named a new president. The end-of-life care provider announced the hiring of Ernesto Lopez on July 11. The hospice veteran officially takes over as The Denver Hospice’s president on Aug. 21, according to the organization. “We

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Hospice News

MARCH 6, 2024

A new legislative package winding its way through Congress could re-allocate hospice funds to other programs. If enacted, it would make adjustments to the hospice payment cap for 2033 that would free up $927 million. The nation’s four largest hospice industry groups have voice opposition to these provisions. for next year.

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Hospice News

JULY 26, 2024

Hospices combat both operational and financial challenges as they seek to grow and evolve their veteran programs around the diverse and complex needs of patients and their families. I think that’s a challenge that a lot of hospices run into.” Graveran is also a veteran.

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Hospice News

JULY 12, 2024

Alive Hospice Names New CEO Alive Hospice has tapped Kerry Hamilton as its new president and CEO. Hamilton takes the helm at the Nashville-based nonprofit hospice after previously serving as principal of the health care consulting firm Ten26 Health Group.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 9, 2023

Seeds of optimism are taking root among hospice providers that industry-wide labor pressures may improve this year. Survey respondents included nearly 330 hospice and palliative care industry professionals, including owners, executive leaders and managers, among others.

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 14, 2022

Hospice provider Agape Care Group has acquired GHC Hospice for an undisclosed sum, furthering the company’s goal of multistate expansion through the Southeast. With the addition of GHC locations, Agape Care Group’s 1,450 employees will be caring for close to 3,600 patients. GHC will not rebrand in the near term.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 15, 2023

Members of Congress are seeking answers from federal regulators on hospice program integrity as industry advocacy groups call for further action. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), asking for the agency to brief them on fraud and abuse within the hospice benefit. Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas) and Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.)

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 6, 2022

Globally, the need for hospice and palliative care has been growing faster than people can access them. This was the impetus behind the World Hospice Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA), which emerged from an Oct. 8, 2005 meeting of health care leaders in South Korea. Case in point, as many as 71% of the U.S.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 10, 2023

District Judge Debra Brown has sentenced a Mississippi hospice physician to five years in prison for taking $16 million in fraudulent Medicare claims. Dr. Scott Nelson of Clevland, Mississippi was convicted last April of certifying patients for hospice who were not terminally ill. billion in the fiscal year ending Sept.

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Hospice News

NOVEMBER 11, 2022

Staffing issues have increasingly been at the root of leading causes behind shuttered hospice programs nationwide. Demographics are pushing up demand for end-of-life care amid long-standing staffing shortages in hospice. RoboToaster, SmugMug RoboToaster, SmugMug Joel Wherley at the 2022 ELEVATE Conference.

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Hospice News

JULY 31, 2023

Virginia-based Blue Ridge Hospice is building a foundation for a larger future with geographic expansion, a growing range of services and a rebrand in the works. We want to be in front of that not left behind,” Hamilton Fried told Hospice News. “So Meanwhile, its palliative care program has thrived.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 20, 2022

SCAN Health Plan is among the Medicare Advantage (MA) payers entering the hospice component of the value-based insurance design (VBID) payment demonstration in 2023. The four-year program — often called the Medicare Advantage hospice carve-in — launched Jan. This number grew to 115 in 2022.

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 13, 2023

VITAS Healthcare Expands Hospital-Based Inpatient Hospice Center Chemed Corp. NYSE: CHE) VITAS Healthcare recently expanded its inpatient hospice care unit at the Florida-based Broward Health Medical Center. Miami-based VITAS has provided community- and facility-based hospice care in the Broward County area since 1980.

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Hospice News

APRIL 7, 2023

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is seeking answers from the hospice community — including some around utilization patterns and non-hospice spending. The recently proposed 2024 hospice payment rule contained a 2.8% In Fiscal Year 2022, routine home care accounted for 98.8% As many as 72.2%

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 2, 2024

Sarah Bush Lincoln Opens New Hospice Illinois-based Sarah Bush Lincoln Hospice recently opened a new inpatient facility. Located in Mattoon, Illinois, the Willow Breeze Hospice House features eight patient rooms with private bathrooms. The hospice provider is part of the Sarah Bush Lincoln Health System, which opened in 1977.

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