Hospice News

AUGUST 19, 2024

If enacted, the Hospice Care Accountability, Reform and Enforcement (Hospice CARE) Act could open up reimbursement pathways for high-acuity palliative services during a time when demand and costs are rising. The drafted Hospice CARE Act included potential avenues to improve payment for high-acuity palliative treatments.

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Hospice News

NOVEMBER 27, 2024

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. Some individuals also hold management positions at several of these hospices simultaneously.

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Hospice News

JUNE 29, 2022

Congressional legislators are casting doubts on regulatory oversight of Medicare Advantage plans over concerns about spending, claims denials, and end-of-life care. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) or any Medicare Advantage plans spoke at this hearing. No representatives from the U.S.

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 17, 2024

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released its first draft guidance manual for implementing the Hospice Outcomes and Patient Evaluation (HOPE) tool. The tool is slated for an October 2025 implementation, according to the agency’s 2025 final hospice rule.

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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

NOVEMBER 21, 2024

The soon-to-be-implemented hospice Special Focus Program (SFP) from the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) could produce misinformation that could interfere with access to care. It might make them even fearful about hospice care, which is the last thing we want to see happen.

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NHPCO

MARCH 28, 2024

proposed rate increase for hospices is not enough to support the continued delivery of hospice care amidst rising cost pressures and ongoing workforce constraints affecting hospices nationwide,” said NHPCO COO and Interim CEO, Ben Marcantonio. “To We know that hospice care has demonstrated $3.5

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Hospice News

JUNE 11, 2024

“However, we believe further scrutiny of the performance of PE associated activity is warranted to ensure that all Medicare beneficiaries receive the quality of hospice care to which they are entitled. Of those, about 77% were for-profit entities, which provided care to about half of Medicare hospice decedents that year.

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Hospice News

AUGUST 2, 2024

Both organizations bring a rich history and awareness of the challenges and opportunities in home health and hospice care delivery, said Bill Dombi, interim Co-CEO of the NAHC-NHPCO Alliance. The alliance is anticipated to take shape under a new name by January 2025, he indicated. Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon).

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 15, 2024

The cap is designed to prevent overuse of hospice, put controls on Medicare spending and foster greater access to care among patients. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services set the cap at $33,394. In 2025, this will rise to $34,465. This corresponds with quality of care considerations.

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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 hospice component of VBID, also called the MA carve-in, launched in 2021 and was originally slated to complete after four years.

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Hospice News

APRIL 8, 2024

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) 2025 proposed hospice rule contained requests for information (RFIs) that could signal changes in the agency’s thinking on key issues. Through RFIs, CMS tries to take the pulse of providers’ positions on certain questions that could impact the Medicare Hospice Benefit.

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Hospice News

JULY 23, 2024

The Medicare Hospice Benefit is ripe for change nearly four decades after its establishment, but moving the needle will include a heavy lift around evolving regulations. This is according to Bill Dombi, president of the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC). But hospice has moved into a new era.

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Hospice News

MARCH 4, 2024

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.

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Hospice News

AUGUST 15, 2024

The post-Medicare Advantage hospice carve-in landscape could include wider value-based reimbursement avenues in the hospice space, leading providers to pivot into MA payer relationships. The forthcoming end of the hospice component of the value-based insurance design (VBID) demonstrative takes effect Dec.

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Hospice News

MAY 29, 2024

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) may not have accounted for the financial and administrative burdens associated with its implementation of the Hospice Outcomes and Patient Evaluation (HOPE) Tool. The tool is slated for an October 2025 implementation, according to the proposed rule.

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Hospice News

JUNE 3, 2024

Hospice industry organizations have voiced support for proposed updates to the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) surveys, but raised questions on the implementation timeline. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) included the updates in its proposed hospice payment rule for 2025.

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Hospice News

MAY 8, 2024

A bill currently before Congress would extend through 2026 regulatory flexibilities related to telehealth, including the ability to recertify patients for hospice care. If enacted, the Preserving Telehealth, Hospital, and Ambulance Access Act, would as of 2025 extend the flexibilities by two years. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.)

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Hospice News

AUGUST 2, 2024

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has proposed a new avenue of funding for Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) with implications for palliative care providers. The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) announced the new payment demonstration in March.

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Hospice News

MARCH 20, 2024

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) has unveiled a new primary care-oriented Accountable Care Organization (ACO) payment model that holds opportunities for hospices. ACOs will then distribute payment to the participating primary care providers in their networks.

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Hospice News

MAY 16, 2024

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is currently developing quality measures that will be included in the HOPE tool, which will replace the current Hospice Item Set (HIS). After years of development, the agency in its recent hospice proposed rule indicated that the HOPE tool’s implementation would begin in 2025.

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 26, 2024

The program is designed to recognize up-and-coming industry members who are shaping the next decade of home health, hospice care, senior housing, skilled nursing, and behavioral health. Looking ahead to 2025, what do you foresee as being different about the hospice industry? Optimistic.

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Hospice News

JULY 1, 2024

Staffing pressures are also a major contributing factor to the hospice investor outlook. Nonprofit providers have largely made up the bulk of organizations in the end-of-life care space since the Medicare Hospice Benefit was established roughly four decades ago. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

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Hospice News

JUNE 24, 2024

1, 2025, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Innovation Center will begin implementing a payment model for primary care known as the Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) Primary Care Flex Model under the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP).

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 13, 2024

The program is designed to recognize up-and-coming industry members who are shaping the next decade of home health, hospice care, senior housing, skilled nursing, and behavioral health. If you could change one thing with an eye toward the future of hospice, what would it be? To see this year’s Future Leaders, visit [link].

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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. Many established services for the purpose of selling the license at a profit or defrauding Medicare.

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Hospice News

JANUARY 3, 2024

The bill builds upon the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) of 2015, designed to speed transitions to patient-centered, value-based care. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) develop more transparent financial benchmarks that account for regional variations in health care spending, Pittman added.

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Hospice News

JUNE 30, 2023

By 2025, their numbers will nearly double, according to the U.S. More patients elect hospice in California than in any other state. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The company operates 50 hospice programs across 14 states and in the District of Columbia, with 27 inpatient hospice units nationwide.

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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. Hospices and palliative care providers can come to ACOs by two main avenues.

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Hospice News

JUNE 21, 2023

Longer general inpatient hospice stays and high-cost issues are reasons for the audit, dubbed the “Audit of Selected, High-Risk Medicare Hospice General Inpatient Services,” according to OIG. The audit is among a host of others in the health care space that the agency rolled out this month in its Work Plan initiatives.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 4, 2024

The program is designed to recognize up-and-coming industry members who are shaping the next decade of home health, hospice care, senior housing, skilled nursing, and behavioral health. Tej Dhillon, founder and CEO of Seva Hospice, has been named a 2024 Future Leader by Hospice News. I knew of the benefit.

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Hospice News

JULY 7, 2022

Croix Hospice is answering the growing hospice care needs of central Missouri by locating additional staff to serve communities from our new Jefferson City location,” said CEO Heath Bartness in a press release. based Lexington Hospice Care. by 2025, up from 13.5% by 2025, up from 13.5%

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NHPCO

JANUARY 12, 2024

During yesterday’s public meetings, the MedPAC Commissioners unanimously voted in favor of the Chair’s hospice recommendation, which will be included in the Commission’s report to Congress in March 2024. We are gratified that Congress never acted on the cap cut concept.

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Hospice News

AUGUST 30, 2022

. “With the addition of Comfort Hospice of St. Louis Missouri and Grace Hospice of Maumee Ohio, we are poised for expansion throughout the Midwest as we continue our mission of making hospice care more accessible to our communities,” Justin DeWitte, CEO of Residential Hospice, said in a statement.

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NHPCO

JULY 11, 2024

Dr. Harper’s lifelong leadership had profound and lasting positives impact across social work; hospice care; and diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB). Harper’s advocacy also impacted hospice care domestically, particularly in her pivotal role in integrating hospice care benefits into Medicare.

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 3, 2024

The program is designed to recognize up-and-coming industry members who are shaping the next decade of home health, hospice care, senior housing, skilled nursing and behavioral health. Now, hospice is more than 90% Medicare fee-for-service, but all that’s subject to change here in the future.

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Hospice News

MARCH 22, 2024

Hospice providers need to evolve with their changing patient populations and the larger health care system, according to Greg Hagfors, CEO of Partners In Care. A group of volunteers had brought the hospice concept from the United Kingdom to Oregon, according to Hagfors. How do you tackle that problem?

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