Hospice News

DECEMBER 1, 2023

The national average hourly rate for Hospice registered nurses rose 4.58% in 2023, down from a 5.95% increase in 2022, according to a new report by the Hospital & Healthcare Compensation Service (HCS) in cooperation with the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC). Nationally, hourly wages for hospice RNs reached $38.08

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 24, 2023

The bonus program included a one-time retention payment that ranged from $2,000 to $15,000 per employee for nurses, nurse managers, home health aides and social workers. Since its implementation in July 2022, VITAS has bolstered its ranks with 275 newly hired licensed clinicians, including 103 during Q4, the company reported.

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Hospice News

JULY 27, 2023

In addition to nurses, the retention program also aimed to recruit admission nurses, nurse managers, home health aides and social workers. million compared to the first half of 2022. rise from the same period in 2022. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) proposed 2.8% year-over-year rise.

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 4, 2023

Centers of Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), is contributing to the company’s optimism. Fueling the growth is an influx of new clinician hires, spurred by a bonus program the company offered between July 2022 and mid-2023. For VITAS in particular, increases in clinical capacity has fostered steady growth during 2023.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 26, 2024

Referral rejection rates among hospices reached a record high of 41% in 2022, according to data from CarePort, a WellSky company. Providers have reported shortages among social workers and nonclinical staff as well. Only LPNs and LVNs had higher rates, reaching 31.52% turnover and 25.12% for vacancies.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 23, 2024

Around this time last year, the company also began contracting directly with Medicare Advantage payers, beginning with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee. million in 2022. Through the agreement, Amedisys will make palliative care available to eligible members among the nonprofit health plan’s 3.3 million beneficiaries.

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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

SEPTEMBER 9, 2024

The organization began as a home health agency and added a hospice segment in 2022, according to Vicki Owens, CEO of Emmaus Catholic Hospice, DBA under the nonprofit Dominican Home Health Agency. Becoming Medicare-certified in April 2023, the hospice served its first patient last June. That was a really foundational year for us.

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Hospice News

APRIL 27, 2023

.” – Chemed CFO and Executive Vice President David Williams The bonus program includes a one-time retention payment that ranges from $2,000 to $15,000 per employee for nurses, nurse managers, home health aides and social workers. from the first quarter of 2022 but represents a 9.1% sequential improvement from Q4 2022.

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Hospice News

APRIL 11, 2024

Roughly 82% of Medicare decedents in 2018 were Caucasian, according to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. The research began in August 2022 with participation from NORC, the HAP Foundation and Arreola Research. Racial divides have interfered with access to hospice services nationwide. were Hispanic; 1.8%

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Hospice News

MAY 30, 2023

Aides in 2022 represented a large percentage of job vacancies in the hospice space at nearly 20%, according to research from Hospital & Healthcare Compensation Service (HCS) and the National Association of Home Care & Hospice (NAHC). Participants included hospice aides, social workers, nurses, clinicians, chaplains and other staff.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 8, 2023

Hospice executives in December 2022 shared their predictions for what would happen in the space during 2023. Providers have reported shortages among social workers and nonclinical staff as well. This entire Medicare Advantage carve-in, it makes sense. Croix Hospice CEO Heath Bartness told Hospice News at Home Care 100. “We

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Hospice News

MAY 4, 2022

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has reimbursed palliative care through a fee-for-service model that only covers physician and licensed independent practitioner services, rather than the full range of interdisciplinary care. They also must become adept at negotiating with payers, such as Medicare Advantage plans.

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Hospice News

APRIL 13, 2023

In 2022, Hospice & Palliative Care of the Wood River Valley performed 2,622 registered nurse visits and assisted 1,638 individuals in its community, according to a recent newsletter. Wood River reportedly provides care free of charge and does not bill insurance companies or Medicare.

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Hospice News

AUGUST 7, 2023

Insurance companies and Medicare are also starting to recognize the cost savings and improved patient outcomes the clinics can provide. “I In the face of staffing shortages, especially of nurses and social workers, telehealth also helps coordinate visits with those team members, Schell explained. In May 2022, Sen.

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Hospice News

JANUARY 29, 2024

Fee-for-service Medicare, for example, only covers physician and licensed independent practitioner services and does not cover the full range of interdisciplinary palliative care. A number of industry groups and lawmakers have pushed for the establishment of a dedicated palliative care benefit within Medicare.

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Hospice News

JUNE 7, 2024

These were the driving factors that fueled HPCMV to seek out Medicare certification after nearly four decades of thriving on philanthropic support, according to Stauffer Wozniak. Can you elaborate on what led to the Medicare certification process nearly 40 years after the organization’s establishment and some of the nuances involved?

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 16, 2022

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure. CMS has extended virtual care in Medicare in mental health to the extent of our authority, and Congress has extended a lot of the telehealth flexibilities beyond the public health emergency. Other disciplines have also seen high rates of loss.

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 8, 2023

Lawmakers have an essential role in ensuring the viability of the Medicare Hospice Benefit, according to Davis Baird, director for government affairs for hospice at the National Association for Home Care and Hospice (NAHC). So, having those conversations about what those improvements would be is going to be an important exercise in 2024.”

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 12, 2023

In 2022, the company rebranded as VyncaCare to reflect its broadened scope of clinical services. 2022 funding round led by Questa Capital with participation from Generator Ventures, First Trust Capital Partners, 4100 Group and OCA Ventures. We do traditional Medicare. The company has raised at least $40.3 We do fee-for-service.

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Hospice News

NOVEMBER 10, 2022

“We had excess clinical worker retirements, people beyond the normal retirement age … With those developments, we had burnout of the retained employees.”. Those struggles have continued through 2022, but developments in the second half of the year are showing signs of an upward trend. from the prior year’s quarter.

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Hospice News

JANUARY 18, 2024

In 2022, Helios Care served more than 580 hospice patients across four New York counties in addition to 90 palliative care patients and more than 550 bereavement care clients. But we both know that as Medicare Advantage begins to expand, and [the U.S. We have one county the size of Rhode Island. That’s the big news.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 1, 2024

Though increased virtual health care access can help hospice providers reach patients upstream, the trend may be worsening disparities and outcomes among Asian American populations, according to Victoria Tsze, an outpatient hospice social worker at Tucson Medical Center (TMC) Hospice. This is compared to 51.6% of more than 2.1

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Hospice News

NOVEMBER 14, 2022

Labor shortages and other headwinds have battered hospices during 2022, including large companies. This year brought the return of Medicare sequestration, and pandemic-driven disruption in referral streams are lingering. Acquisitions have contributed roughly $65 million to Addus’ bottom line thus far in 2022.

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Hospice News

APRIL 17, 2023

Reimbursement for palliative care in fee-for-service Medicare currently only covers physician or nurse practitioner services. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) does allow Medicare Advantage plans to cover home-based palliative care as a supplemental benefit.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 28, 2024

A bonus program implemented last year has accelerated hiring, which in turn has relieved some of the capacity constraints that have been a stumbling block for several quarters running.The initiative included a one-time retention payment that ranges from $2,000 to $15,000 per employee for nurses, nurse managers, home health aides and social workers.

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Hospice News

JANUARY 19, 2023

billion in 2022, a report from ResearchandMarkets estimated. Chicago-based Oak Street Health consists of a network of value-based primary care facilities that serve upwards of 145,000 Medicare beneficiaries across 21 states. The hospice market is expected to nearly double in the next decade, reaching $64.7 billion in 2030 from $34.5

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Hospice News

NOVEMBER 30, 2022

As VBID now, we’re approaching the end of 2022 and then emerging into 2023, we’re going to be in 15 plans, 119 plan benefit packages, and across 806 counties. HSPN: Can you talk a little bit about what kind of disruption could occur in the hospice industry, as a result of Medicare Advantage? Are you not?

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Hospice News

MAY 2, 2022

As a leader at UnityPoint, what are your priorities for 2022? When you talk about an interdisciplinary team coming into your home — nurses, a social worker, chaplain, having access to the physician, volunteers — people are automatically going to think that there’s a cost associated with that.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 26, 2023

The bonus program, which ended in July, included a one-time retention payment that ranges from $2,000 to $15,000 per employee for nurses, nurse managers, home health aides and social workers who completed at least 12 months of employment. increase to the Medicare base rate. These factors helped to generate a 12.5%

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Hospice News

APRIL 4, 2024

Collaborations with participants in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation’s (CMMI) Accountable Care Organization (ACO) Primary Care Flex demo could allow hospices to leverage their skill sets to access more patients. If they are not already participating, ACOs will also have to apply to the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP).

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 18, 2023

The collaboration was developed to offer home-based palliative care to Medicare Advantage beneficiaries covered by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, parent company of Livio Health. Minneapolis-based Livio Health was later acquired in 2022 by Lifespark, a senior health care company in the state.

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NHPCO

DECEMBER 20, 2022

December 20, 2022 . Continued slowdown of hospice caps: The legislation extends the cap calculation methodology implemented by the Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation (IMPACT) Act of 2014. For Immediate Release. Patients will also be able to continue to participate in telehealth visits from home. .

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Hospice News

JANUARY 31, 2024

The nonprofit’s pediatric program grew its capacity to 120 patients in 2022, a rise from a previous census volume of 40. Most PACE participants are reimbursed through the long-term care programs within Medicare and Medicaid, according to Black.

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GeriPal

MARCH 24, 2023

Summary Transcript Summary In November of 2022, Ava Kofman published a piece in the New Yorker titled “How Hospice Became a For-Profit Hustle.” Some viewed this piece as an affront to the amazing work hospice does for those approaching the end of their lives by cherry picking stories of a few bad actors to paint hospice is a bad light.

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NHPCO

DECEMBER 13, 2023

The findings in this report reflect patients who received care in Calendar Year (CY) 2021, or Fiscal Year (FY) 2021, provided by hospices certified by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and reimbursed under the Medicare Hospice Benefit. Most beneficiaries switch to Traditional Medicare. of White, 36.3%

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NHPCO

JUNE 16, 2023

These congressional advocacy actions came a week after NHPCO filed detailed comments on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 Hospice Wage Index and Quality Reporting Proposed Rule, demonstrating the importance of both legislative and regulatory advocacy for protecting and improving hospice and palliative care.

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