Hospice News

APRIL 3, 2025

More and more patients are aging into Medicare benefits, and more and more patients are opting to age in place, which, for many folks, means their home. AccentCare is primed for further hospice growth, with both health system joint ventures and de novo activity as twin cornerstones of its strategy.

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Hospice News

AUGUST 16, 2023

Medicare Advantage plans are connecting the dots between quality scores and care delivery costs. When choosing a hospice to work with, payers in the Medicare Advantage (MA) realm zero in on providers’ quality scores and its patient population growth potential, according to Frontpoint Healthcare CEO Brent Korte.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 19, 2023

Hospice News: Today we will talk about threads of clinical documentation and satisfaction and also revenue protection. Here’s an area that you missed from a documentation perspective where you could get dinged by CMS for not documenting it, either this element or this way.” It’s an administrative burden.

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Hospice News

JULY 5, 2023

A new cancer-focused payment model demonstration from the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) could create opportunities for palliative care providers. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). They are required to do symptom assessments and then come up with plans to address symptoms and side effects. “The

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 21, 2025

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) launched the GUIDE model with nearly 400 participating organizations, including many hospice and palliative care providers. The study also includes examination of patients documented goals of care. They often have long periods of caregiving.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 2, 2024

This can result in high costs that are not covered by traditional palliative care payment avenues in the Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement system. Palliative care providers face a host of legal and regulatory challenges when seeking to expand patients’ access to certain controlled substances.

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 18, 2023

Students are also trained on understanding how AI technology can reduce time spent on patient documentation and help catch errors. As the need for palliation grows, outcomes and experiences vastly vary – with payment often at the crux of inconsistencies in quality and care delivery approaches.

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Hospice News

APRIL 24, 2023

However, unlike hospice services, which have a distinct payment model supported by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), palliative care has less established infrastructure for delivery. The shift does present challenges, however. But it’s proving outcomes and it’s making waves.”

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Hospice News

MARCH 1, 2024

A growing body of research touts the benefits of palliative care for patients, families, and even providers. However, when evaluated through randomized clinical trials, the results tend to lean toward mediocre. I think the measures we have, it’s not so much that they’re wrong, but they certainly are imprecise,” Dr. Kathleen M.

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Hospice News

MAY 9, 2023

This is particularly the case when negotiating contracts with Medicare Advantage plans, Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) and other value-based payment arrangements. “[It] This will be important to measure for ACO or shared-savings programs, with Medicare Advantage programs, and with any other collaborative partners.”

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Hospice News

JULY 15, 2022

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)], have an interest in making sure that we are supporting patients and families in the very last days of life and measuring that. We need to make sure that our documentation for all of our staff is really demonstrating the need just because we know there’s such heightened scrutiny there.

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 15, 2022

Commonly known as the Medicare Advantage hospice carve-in, the Value-Based Insurance Design (VBID) model officially launched on January 1, 2021, with 53 Medicare Advantage Plans offering the benefit in 206 counties within 13 states and Puerto Rico for 4 years ending in 2025. The difference is Medicare Advantage vs Humana VBID.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 21, 2024

Utilization of the general inpatient level of care (GIP) is frequently the subject of audits by Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs), and avoiding or responding to that scrutiny requires strict compliance to a complex web of rules. If GIP billing exceeds that metric, the hospice must refund those payments to Medicare.

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Hospice News

APRIL 12, 2024

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) proposed 2025 hospice rule contains clarifications on which physicians may certify patients for hospice enrollment. However, federal regulations are inconsistent as to which physicians can certify a patient as being terminally ill under Medicare.”

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Hospice News

MAY 30, 2023

For Center to Advance Palliative Care’s CEO Brynn Bowman, palliative care represents a fundamental shift in health care delivery as it continues to grow and make an impact on facilities and patients. health care workforce with the skills necessary to care for seriously ill patients and their families. Are the care models consistent?

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 16, 2024

How’s it being documented? The health care performance improvement company Stratis Health has developed a framework for expanding access to palliative care in rural communities. It leverages those resources to offer a wraparound suite of services for seniors and seriously ill patients. There’s a variety. Who is aware of it?

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 19, 2023

A Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) can deny a hospice claim for a wide range of reasons, but two types of errors stand out that can lead to a rejection. Medicare’s automated claims processing systems are designed to identify these kinds of errors. A few causes of denials are widely known.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 16, 2023

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) updated risk adjustment policy could lead to tightened belts — or a golden opportunity — for palliative care providers in Medicare Advantage. patients is now reimbursed through risk-based models like Medicare Advantage and Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs).

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Hospice News

JANUARY 3, 2023

The Hospice and Palliative Care Association of New York State tweeted a photograph of the veto document. New York’s hospice utilization rate was the lowest in the nation in 2020 at 24% among Medicare decedents, the National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) reported. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

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Hospice News

JULY 30, 2024

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has unveiled its final 2025 hospice rule, which includes a 2.9% increase in per diem payments alongside new quality reporting measures. The increase represents an estimated $790 million rise in total hospice payments compared to Fiscal Year (FY) 2024. It is also higher than the 2.6%

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GeriPal

OCTOBER 26, 2023

Summary Transcript Summary Often podcasts meet clinical reality. That’s why we do this podcast- to address real world issues in palliative care, geriatrics, and bioethics. But rarely does the podcast and clinical reality meet in the same day. Lynn Flint, author of the NEJM perspective titled, “Rehabbed to Death,” joins Eric and I as co-host.

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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). Ensuring clinicians have strong documentation and comprehensive assessment and communication skills is another key, she stated.

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Hospice News

NOVEMBER 20, 2023

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). CMS and its Medicare Administrative Contractors have prioritized audits for general inpatient care (GIP) stays that are longer than seven days, though CMS has no rules that limit the time patients can receive those services. Utilization overall has been declining.

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Hospice News

APRIL 17, 2024

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) review and appeals process, according to CEO Greg Hagfors. The provider recently celebrated the 45th anniversary of its founding, which preceded the establishment of the Medicare Hospice Benefit. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) due to audit-related claims denials.

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Hospice News

JUNE 14, 2024

Fraudsters have bilked Medicare for millions, with some cases resulting in criminal charges and even imprisonment. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in its finalized 2024 hospice rule implemented increased penalties for hospices that fail to comply with quality reporting requirements. Additionally, the U.S.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 27, 2023

Auditing types anticipated to ramp up in hospice include Targeted Probe and Educate (TPE) audits conducted by Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACS) and others involving Unified Program Integrity Contractors (UPIC), Supplemental Medical Review Contractors (SMRC) and Recovery Audit Contractors (RAC). Some of them are easy to digest.

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Hospice News

JUNE 17, 2022

A clinician may not not have realized they were acting contrary to patients’ wishes due to insufficient training, documentation errors or process breakdowns. . They know the patient’s wishes were documented but chose to ignore them. In other instances, a health care provider acts deliberately.

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Hospice News

MAY 31, 2024

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced a second cohort for its Enhancing Oncology Model payment demonstration, as well as some updates to the program. While documents on the model do not specifically mention palliative care, several elements of the model align with that care model. Effective Jan.

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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

NOVEMBER 28, 2022

There’s not even a place in most medical records to document that. We have an inpatient hospice unit at our university, and at times you have to go to families and say, “They’re kind of stable, so Medicare is not going to allow this or pay for this. You’ve personally been a caregiver yourself.

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Hospice News

MAY 24, 2024

If more patients were to document their end-of-life wishes, it could effectively transform aspects of the nation’s health care system, generating cost savings and better outcomes, according to Minnesota-based physician Dr. Michael Madison. The Medicare Advantage patient population is a progressively increasing patient population.

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Hospice News

JANUARY 2, 2024

Audits audits by Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) have proliferated during the past two years, including Targeted Probe and Educate (TPE) audits, as well as those by Unified Program Integrity Contractors (UPIC), Supplemental Medical Review Contractors (SMRC) and Recovery Audit Contractors (RAC). Hospices received nearly 5.4%

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Hospice News

APRIL 6, 2023

Kevin Sarkisyan, of San Gabriel Hospice & Palliative Care, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the government for his involvement in submitting false enrollment applications to Medicare that hid the “real owners of a hospice company,” according to court documents. Ghadimi is accused of misusing Medicare payments.

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Hospice News

MARCH 26, 2025

He previously served as president of the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) for 38 years prior to its affiliation with the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) in 2023 and was heavily involved in the establishment of the Medicare Hospice Benefit. The third thing is management.

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Hospice News

NOVEMBER 2, 2023

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized its home health rule for 2024 containing a new policy that will require anyone who holds 5% ownership or more in a hospice to submit a criminal background check, including fingerprints. Additional services include palliative care, a veterans program and care coordination.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 24, 2024

They also envision opportunities to reform the Medicare Hospice Benefit and diversify their scope of services. We’re seeing a fair bit of variability in how different agencies approach documentation audits. There’s a lot of unknown changes in Medicare. Regulatory challenges are among hospice leaders’ most significant concerns.

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Hospice News

JULY 7, 2023

Hospices need to have solid documentation to demonstrate a patient’s need for general inpatient care (GIP) as regulatory oversight zeroes in on those services. Both types of audits focus on identifying recurrent errors on Medicare claims or billing practices that the the U.S. GIP can involve longer stays and higher costs.

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