Hospice News

JANUARY 31, 2024

The Texas-based home health and hospice company VitalCaring Group was built largely through acquisitions, and the company expects to step up that strategy in 2024 with an emphasis on hospice. We’re very well-poised going into 2024 to start executing on our growth strategy. How have things been progressing since then?

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Hospice News

JULY 28, 2023

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is giving hospices a 3.1% increase to their per diem payments for 2024, according to a final rule published Friday. payment boost the agency initially proposed for 2024 hospice payments back in March. The finalized rule also raises the aggregate payment cap to $33,494.01

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 3, 2023

Hospice News sat down with Marcantonio at NHPCO’s Annual Leadership Conference in Little Rock, Arkansas, to discuss the hospice industry’s priorities for the remainder of 2023 and into 2024. What else is top of mind for you as you’re looking ahead to 2024? But of course other priorities exist.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 9, 2023

Calls have grown louder for an overhauled design of the Medicare Hospice Benefit, but the path towards change is riddled with contrasting views over regulation, policy and payment structures. Part of the problem is that the [Medicare] Hospice Benefit is 40 plus years old.

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Hospice News

NOVEMBER 17, 2023

This year has brought both tumultuous challenges and evolving opportunities for hospices that will steer hospice leadership during 2024. Among them is an evolving conversation around potential changes to the Medicare Hospice Benefit, an increasing focus on equitable access and service diversification to engage patients further upstream.

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Hospice News

APRIL 3, 2023

The 2024 proposed hospice rule from the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) signals the agency’s earliest response to widespread calls to bolster program integrity within the benefit. The post Program Integrity Takes Center Stage in CMS’ 2024 Proposed Hospice Rule appeared first on Hospice News.

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Hospice News

MAY 31, 2023

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to reconsider the proposed 2.8% base rate increase for 2024. The post Hospice Providers, Industry Groups: CMS Should Increase 2024 Hospice Base Rate by Nearly 4% appeared first on Hospice News.

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NHPCO

SEPTEMBER 10, 2024

NHPCO is currently integrating into the Alliance, a newly-formed national organization that is combining the two leading organizations supporting the care-at-home community – NHPCO and the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC). Of all Medicare decedents in CY 2022, 49.1% With 49.1%

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Hospice News

NOVEMBER 14, 2023

Investment trends in the hospice industry have meandered in recent years, impacting providers’ approaches to growth in 2024. The mix of hospice buyers has become more diverse during the past five years to include more private equity investors, large health and hospital systems and home health companies, along with payers.

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Hospice News

JUNE 7, 2024

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has updated its guidance on the recently implemented hospice certifying physician Medicare enrollment requirement. The regulations stipulate that the attending physician must only certify a patient’s terminal illness for the initial hospice Medicare benefit period.

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Hospice News

MARCH 21, 2024

Members of Congress are raising questions about the continued Medicare certification for new hospices in areas rife with fraud. Investigations have shown that potentially hundreds of newly licensed hospices have bilked Medicare of millions of dollars during the past several years, all while providing egregiously poor care or none at all.

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Hospice News

APRIL 26, 2024

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has delayed the implementation of hospice certifying physician Medicare enrollment requirements. CMS delayed the date to enroll in or opt out of Medicare until June 3 for physicians who certify hospice services.

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Hospice News

JUNE 12, 2024

Inflation and rising health care utilization are driving U.S. health care spending to growth faster than the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). The nation’s health care spend is projected to reach nearly $5.1 trillion in 2024, up from $4.5 Hospice care saves Medicare roughly $3.5 of the anticipated U.S.

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Hospice News

NOVEMBER 1, 2023

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has finalized its 2024 home health rule, including the implementation of a hospice Special Focus Program (SFP). The requirement mirrors a regulation that has existed for several years for home health agencies.

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Hospice News

AUGUST 2, 2023

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) recently finalized hospice payment rule. pay raise won’t be enough to support care amid these financial pressures, she said. The proposed version of the 2024 rule contained several requests for information from providers, which included questions on potential health equity measures.

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Hospice News

NOVEMBER 13, 2024

Though hospice deal volume has grown quarter-by-quarter in 2024, the market has largely slumped due to various factors, some still rooted in the COVID-19 outbreak, according to Lillis. There was a brief moment where people were trying to capture anything that moved in the market, but in 2024 things have settled back down and stabilized.

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Hospice News

MARCH 6, 2024

The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, LeadingAge, the National Association for Home Care & Hospice and the National Partnership for Healthcare and Hospice Innovation have been in communication with lawmakers in hopes of keeping the funds within the hospice program. “At for next year.

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Hospice News

AUGUST 21, 2023

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) forthcoming Special Focus Program (SFP) for hospices. The TEP completed its work late last year, and now, per the 2024 proposed home health rule, the agency wants to move ahead with it in 2024. A coalition of industry groups has spoken out about the design of the U.S.

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 12, 2023

Hospice News sat down with providers, advocacy groups, legal experts and other stakeholders to uncover the most significant hospice regulatory trends from this year and their anticipated impacts heading into 2024 and beyond. 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

JANUARY 12, 2024

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) has voted to recommend a freeze on hospice payment increases starting in 2025. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The 2021 aggregated Medicare hospice margin was 13.3%, according to MedPAC.

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Hospice News

JUNE 26, 2024

The bill, if enacted, would introduce much needed and long overdue changes to the Medicare Hospice Benefit, according to Blumenhauer. The area of end-of-life care was ripe for a pilot project. It’s being able to push Congress … to reform the [Medicare] Hospice Benefit, which hasn’t really had an overview since 1982.

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Hospice News

MAY 2, 2023

Language in the 2024 proposed rule for the Medicare hospice program gives some indication of where the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is heading when it comes to quality measurement requirements. If the rule is finalized as written, this will jump to 4%in Fiscal Year 2024 — retroactively to 2022 data.

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Hospice News

MAY 8, 2024

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), they would not be able to recertify via telehealth. Also, clinicians who are not enrolled in Medicare or who validly opted out would likewise be prohibited. Telehealth is the new normal approach for delivering so much of care today,” Smith-Sloan said in a statement.

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Hospice News

MARCH 29, 2024

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed a 2.6% We know that hospice care has demonstrated $3.5 billion in annual savings for Medicare, which underscores the critical importance of investing in hospice to ensure continued beneficiary access to quality end-of-life care.”

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 7, 2023

Strong performance on the Hospice Care Index is becoming increasingly essential to securing payer and referral contracts and will be a key consideration in the federal government’s forthcoming Special Focus Program (SFP). 1 implementation date in its 2024 home health payment rule , which contained several hospice provisions.

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Hospice News

AUGUST 4, 2023

The 2024 final hospice payment rule included a modest payment increase for general inpatient care (GIP) at a time when regulators are zeroing in on increased utilization and longer stays. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) included in the rule a 1.031% increase to hospice GIP services.

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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. The waiver pertaining to routine home care, which ended with the PHE on May 11, was not mentioned in the bill text.

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Hospice News

NOVEMBER 8, 2023

These annual adjustments have their roots in the Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation Act of 2014 (IMPACT Act), which changed the way the hospice aggregate payment cap is calculated. For Fiscal Year 2024, the cap is set at $33,494.01 for next year. CMS has an extensive backlog for hospice surveys.

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Hospice News

JULY 26, 2024

Earl Blumenaur (D-Oregon) and announced in June at the Hospice News Elevate conference, the bill proposed reimbursement and regulatory changes that could bring massive reform to the Medicare Hospice Benefit. Though to date no formal announcements have been made, the bill may be introduced by the end of 2024, Wehri indicated.

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Hospice News

JANUARY 30, 2024

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) gave hospices a 3.1% increase to their per diem payments for 2024, but providers say that the proposed increase is simply not enough to offset the financial obstacles they must overcome to sustain their services. billion for patients in their last year of life, a 3.1% reduction.

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Hospice News

APRIL 5, 2024

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) proposed 2025 hospice rule is finalized as written, hospices may encounter some hurdles implementing some of the new requirements. During the last two years, CMS has addressed some of the hospice issues via provisions in its home health final rules. If the U.S.

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Hospice News

MARCH 23, 2023

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 agency is also releasing applications for participation for eligible Medicare Advantage organizations (MAOs) for calendar year 2024. It makes sense.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 12, 2024

Gentiva Health Services has committed to expanding its recently established Advanced Illness Management (AIM) palliative care model in 2024, including its unique approach to reimbursement. The company has its roots in the former Kindred at Home. Once among the nation’s largest home health and hospice providers, Humana Inc.

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Hospice News

JUNE 13, 2024

The bill would also implement a temporary, national moratorium on the enrollment of new hospices into Medicare, to help stem the tide of fraudulent activities among recently established providers concentrated primarily in California, Arizona, Texas and Nevada. “We

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Hospice News

MAY 31, 2024

The senior care advocacy group LeadingAge has praised the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) inquiries into high-acuity palliative care, but expressed concern over reimbursement and staffing issues. The agency posed similar queries in its proposed rule for 2024.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 4, 2023

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). CMS convened a Technical Expert Panel (TEP) to help design the program, which the agency plans to implement next year, according to its 2024 proposed rule for home health agencies. “We Four members of Congress led by Reps.

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Hospice News

MARCH 12, 2024

Program integrity and an onslaught of audits are top of mind for many hospice providers in 2024. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Close to 80% were related to General Inpatient Care utilization (GIP). In addition to those my Medicare Contractors, last year the U.S.

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