Hospice News

OCTOBER 18, 2023

“Aetna remains focused on providing benefits and services to help our members age in the place that is best for them – whether that is with caregivers or without, in a family home or in a senior living community,” Terri Swanson, president of Medicare for Aetna, told Hospice News in an email. “We

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Hospice News

AUGUST 12, 2024

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has outlined the range of services that will be available to patients aligned with the agency’s Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience (GUIDE) payment model. Also participating in the model are primary care operators that also offer palliative care.

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 9, 2024

These services have also been associated with reduced caregiver burden and better care coordination, particularly for patients in rural, remote and underserved communities, according to the research. It enhances communication, reduces the financial burden of travel and increases patient and caregiver satisfaction.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 30, 2023

Some federal legislators are working to address workforce issues in the hospice space, as well as bolstering support for family caregivers. In a fractious political environment, hospice and palliative care policy is one area in which members of both parties find common ground. Earl Blumenhauer (D-Ore.)

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 4, 2022

The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) is developing new reimbursement pathways for palliative care. As part of that process, CMMI is applying elements of its Medicare Care Choices Model (MCCM) demonstration, which ended Dec. MCCM was designed to test the impact of concurrent hospice and curative care.

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 14, 2022

California-based Legacy Health Endowment recently launched a program to improve care coordinations and seniors’ awareness around their community-based health care options, including hospice. Legacy’s Person-Centered Care program aims to help rural-dwelling seniors to age in place.

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Hospice News

JULY 31, 2023

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has unveiled a new payment model demonstration geared toward dementia-related illnesses, which are becoming more prevalent among hospice patients. Patients will be stratified into one of five tiers, based on a combination of their disease stage and caregiver status.

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 11, 2024

The diversity and wide breadth of services can be beneficial to patient-centered care, she said. Palliative providers can offer consultative services, care coordination assistance, pain and symptom management, different therapies, respite for caregivers and spiritual and emotional support.

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Hospice News

JULY 10, 2023

As health care stakeholders work to improve care coordination, more hospices are exploring home-based primary care. Patients are able to access palliative care when they need it and hospice generally sooner than they normally would.” million primary care visits in 2016. About 12% of the 2.1

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 16, 2022

Technology, cost control, and family caregiver support have emerged as cost-saving strategies as headwinds mount for hospice providers. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) raised hospice per diems by 3.8% Efficiency has become a watchword in the hospice space. They have limited options.”. 3 cost-saving strategies.

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 12, 2022

“The investment in Uintah Basin Home Health and Hospice will allow us to enhance the care coordination with Uintah Basin Medical Center and provide better health outcomes for the patients and clients we serve in the Uintah Basin area.”. Utah holds the highest rate of hospice utilization among Medicare decedents nationwide.

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Hospice News

NOVEMBER 17, 2023

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. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has extended through 2030. Hospice care reduces Medicare expenditures by about $3.5

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Hospice News

MAY 30, 2023

Palliative care services including skilled conversations with patients and families to understand their goals of care, managing pain and other symptoms, support for family caregivers, care coordination, and addressing patients’ social, psychological, and spiritual sources of suffering.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 16, 2024

The post-acute data analytics company develops machine learning solutions designed to identify patients in need of home health, hospice or palliative care services as early as possible in the course of their illnesses. Additionally, 90% of families reported a willingness to recommend the hospice provider to others.

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Hospice News

MAY 18, 2022

These types of data will also be important when hospices begin to negotiate rates with private payers through value-based programs like Medicare Advantage. Hanging onto great caregivers has been the number one issue and concern of all of our clients, bar none,” Miller said. That was a gut-check decision.

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Hospice News

JANUARY 19, 2024

“This has led to capability gaps between the LTPAC settings and other parts of the United States health care system, resulting in missed opportunities to share patient data and coordinate care among providers and caregivers in LTPACs, primary care, and hospitals,” the report indicated.

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Rehab Realities by Renee Kinder

JULY 21, 2022

But onward to post-acute care and what we see coming in the future. . Last week we as an industry saw RTI International release a report titled: CMS Report to Congress: Unified Payment for Medicare-Covered Post-Acute Care Analysis and Development of the Prototype Unified PAC Prospective Payment System Called for in the IMPACT Act.

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The Caregiving Years Training Academy

AUGUST 25, 2024

We need the caregiving expert who understands how to work the systems in order to save work for us. I attended a conference last week for home health and home care providers. I attended in order to find partners for our Certified Caregiving Consultants, who can offer services through Medicare Part B provider.

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The Caregiving Years Training Academy

SEPTEMBER 9, 2023

I attended a home care conference last week and had an opportunity to listen to the directors of home care, home health and hospice organizations discuss their business. As these directors talked about the direct care worker shortage , I realized something incredibly obvious: Family caregivers solve the shortage.

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Comfort Home Care

JANUARY 5, 2024

Senior in-home care is a crucial part of caregiving in Rockville, MD, and throughout the DMV. At Comfort Home Care, we believe it’s the heartbeat of compassionate support for your loved ones. As the Baby Boomers (aka Boomers) advance in age, becoming well-informed about the dynamic world of home health care becomes vital.

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Hospice News

JANUARY 3, 2025

among Medicare decedents in 2023, up more than two percentage points from the prior year, according to recent data from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). The number of hospice care days also saw increases, as did average length of stay and average number of patient visits per week.

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 17, 2024

This could be interpreted as a signal of interest in retaining some of these flexibilities into the future, according to Katy Barnett, director of home care and hospice operations and policy at LeadingAge. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), they would not be able to recertify via telehealth.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 24, 2023

In some cases, a frightened patient or a patient in crisis may call an ambulance or visit and emergency room, prompting revocation of the Medicare Hospice Benefit in order to receive hospital care. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the U.S. The impact on providers can also be profound.

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Hospice News

AUGUST 29, 2024

recently unveiled a new caregiving program aimed at improving support for patients with dementia-related conditions. Dubbed as Magnolia Care, the decision to launch these new services was in part driven by rising demand as more seniors with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia reach life’s final stages, according to the hospice provider.

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Hospice News

MARCH 19, 2025

The certification reflects a growing trend of hospices pursuing disease-specific certifications or programs as a way of diversifying their services within the Medicare Hospice Benefit. In 2022, 52,375 Medicare decedents with (unspecified) heart failure as a principal diagnosis elected hospice about 2.8% Close to 6.7

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Hospice News

JULY 23, 2024

As dementia-related illnesses continue to rise among hospice patients, caregivers and providers alike are working judiciously to best find ways to support patients and their families in navigating these new diagnoses. And it comes with payment to allow organizations like ours to continue to expand our dementia care programs.”

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Hospice News

JULY 8, 2024

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) has launched the Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience (GUIDE) payment model with close to 400 participating organizations, including many palliative care providers. Not every dementia patient has a caregiver and not everyone needs a caregiver necessarily.

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Hospice News

AUGUST 26, 2024

Case in point, the organization recently achieved a Heart Failure Certification from the American Heart Association, which evaluates provides in accordance with evidence-based standards designed to ensure high quality care and adherence to clinical practice guidelines.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 14, 2023

Nationwide, about half of all hospice agencies are freestanding, while the remaining half are owned by other types of providers mainly home health agencies, hospitals and skilled nursing facilities, according to a report from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). Among the 1.6 Among the 1.6

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 25, 2024

Addressing social determinants of health and caregiver needs will be key to improving outcomes during a time when seniors lack both confidence and access to a range of medical and nonmedical services. The swelling aging population and prolific staffing shortages are posing significant challenges in health care delivery.

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Hospice News

JULY 19, 2023

As of 2020, those individuals represented only about 10% of Medicare decedents who elected hospice, according to the National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO). The number of people who suffer from heart failure is expected to rise by 46% between 2012 and 2023, the American Heart Association (AHA) reported.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 14, 2023

The Medicare Hospice Benefit should allow some concurrent care, and Congress should support greater access to palliative care, among other reforms, according to LeadingAge. The senior care advocacy organization wrote to Congressional leaders today calling on lawmakers to devote attention to improving the 40-year-old benefit.

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Hospice News

MAY 13, 2024

The study points to the potential for telehealth utilization to improve care coordination and quality for dying pediatric populations, researchers stated. Patients, caregivers and family members surveyed rated the telehealth hospice services as “highly satisfactory,” including those from bereavement staff members along with clinicians.

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Hospice News

NOVEMBER 16, 2023

Through the arrangement, Goodwin Hospice staff, primarily social workers, refer families to Present for You’s death doula services, particularly when caregivers may need more respite or families are in need of greater touch points and communication, Eulers stated. Death doula services are not reimbursed by Medicare or other insurance.

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Home Care Pulse

JUNE 27, 2023

Laura is passionate about providing quality care and focuses on company culture, organized processes, and strategic growth. Laura has a team of over 40 administrative staff and 400 caregivers providing over 9,000 hours of service per week in the community. Our caregivers, of course, can do those medication reminders.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 31, 2023

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is needed to move the needle towards change, Bowman indicated. Andy Esch, a palliative care specialist based in Florida who also serves as senior education advisor at CAPC.

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1-800-HOSPICE

FEBRUARY 1, 2022

Hospice sends nurses, aides, and other caregivers to the homes of patients with advanced, terminal illnesses. 1-3 This three-month minimum promotes hospice’s ability to provide the physical and emotional support that helps patients and their family caregivers. Medicare Policies. Unfortunately, for most U.S.

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