Hospice News

MARCH 7, 2025

Positive outcomes yielded by the Medicare Care Choices Model (MCCM) could be helping to build the case for a Medicare palliative care carve-out, Farrand indicated. Additionally gaining momentum are questions around palliative cares potential in the realm of Medicare value-based payment in a post-VBID era.

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Hospice News

JUNE 17, 2024

The Indiana-based Center for Hospice Care (CHC) has unveiled a new palliative care program, branded as Kaleidoscope. Kaleidoscope is designed to provide patients with interdisciplinary palliative care in the home setting. The nonprofit also provides palliative care in a clinic setting at its Center for Palliative Care.

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Hospice News

NOVEMBER 12, 2024

Today’s hospice leaders need to take a wide view into the range of challenges facing their interdisciplinary care teams, according to Dr. Andrew Mayo, chief medical officer at St. Croix Hospice. Croix Hospice in 2014 as an associate medical director. Mayo joined St.

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Hospice News

APRIL 16, 2025

Training interdisciplinary staff to identify and address patients nonmedical needs is a significant component of quality palliative care delivery, according to Dr. Tracy Romanello, medical director at Catholic Hospice and Catholic Palliative Care Services.

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 15, 2023

. — Raianne Melton, senior clinical manager professional service, Axxess In some ways the pandemic has been a propellant for clinical innovation in the hospice space, according to Dr. Faith Protsman, regional medical director of California at VITAS Healthcare, subsidiary of Chemed Corp. NYSE: CHE).

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Hospice News

MARCH 4, 2025

She led Arkansas Hospice through tremendous growth and navigated the organization through COVID, regulatory challenges and a changing healthcare environment with tremendous compassion and commitment to our mission. Prior to joining Arkansas Hospice, Bell was the post-acute medical director at Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System.

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Hospice News

AUGUST 28, 2024

A federal court has sentenced Dr. John Thropay, a former medical director for several hospice companies, to 37 months in prison for his involvement in a $2.8 million hospice fraud scheme. Among the companies for which Thropay worked was Blue Sky Hospice, located in Van Nuys, California.

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 24, 2024

Heart to Heart Hospice Appoints CMO, National Medical Director Texas-based Heart to Heart Hospice has tapped Dr. Michael Bond as its new chief medical officer and national medical director. Bond is board-certified in family medicine, emergency medicine and hospice and palliative care medicine.

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Hospice News

JUNE 12, 2024

A 2018 study showed that most students in clinical disciplines do not feel prepared to provide family care at the end of life. Palliative care and hospice is incredibly rewarding, but we sit with incredible suffering. There’s tremendous value to patients and also tremendous economic value in palliative care.

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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. Clarification from CMS in these areas will be helpful to hospices, physicians and those reviewing hospice records for compliance.”

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Hospice News

APRIL 1, 2025

“National data demonstrates how underutilized hospice benefits are for those at the end of life,” said Dr. Andrew Mayo, medical director for St. Croix Hospice, in a statement. “We believe everyone deserves exceptional hospice care, and St. Croix Hospices CEO, in a statement.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 10, 2024

Cameron Muir has been named as the new CMO of the National Partnership for Healthcare and Hospice Innovation (NPHI). His new title signals the organization’s strategic plans to reshape hospice care delivery through patient-centered, innovative approaches, according to NPHI CEO Tom Koutsoumpas. “We

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Hospice News

JUNE 21, 2024

Lovell, along with Stephanie Harbour, executive director at Tapestry Hospice, and other hospice management staff Ben Harbour and registered nurse Andrew Nall, allegedly entered into kickback arrangements with medical directors of other health care organizations in exchange for hospice referrals.

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 20, 2023

“She has extensive hospice experience, at both the clinical and management levels, which will ensure that our programs will be able to serve an increasing number of patients who deserve the benefits of our hospice care services.” Carl Derrick as medical director.

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Hospice News

JUNE 26, 2024

Big Bend Hospice has appointed new c-suite leaders for its newly formed parent company, Seven Oaks Health, which oversees its palliative care arm. Previously, he was COO of Big Bend Hospice. Big Bend has also promoted its medical director, Dr. Deborah Morris, to chief medical officer of Seven Oaks.

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Hospice News

AUGUST 19, 2022

Pennsylvania-based Homeland at Home recently added community-based palliative care to its repertoire of services in response to rising demand for this care. Though the pandemic has led to rising awareness of the nature and availability of palliative care, many mistakenly conflate these services with hospice care.

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Hospice News

AUGUST 25, 2022

For instance, if a hospice with a $15 million annual revenue has nine medical directors on staff, this should “jump off the page” for a buyer, he said. This can call into question whether these medical directors were on staff because they were giving the hospice direct lines of patient referrals.

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Hospice News

MAY 22, 2024

But moving away from fee-for-service towards value-based payment could make a difference when it comes to hiring and retention, according to Dr. Jennifer Blechman, palliative care medical director at the Oregon-based nonprofit Partners in Care. Palliative care traditionally loses money.

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Hospice News

MAY 7, 2024

One hospice executive told Hospice News on background that they have seen situations where new hospices have opened up at the same addresses where others had been shut down, often with the same owners or medical directors. We’re having very robust conversations at the state level,” Rubel said. “We

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Hospice News

MARCH 29, 2024

However, stakeholders in the hospice space contend that the increase is insufficient in light of continued inflation, interest rates, staffing shortages and wage hikes. To continue providing the high level of care our patients and their families deserve, hospices require a payment rate that accurately reflects the current economic challenges.

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Hospice News

JUNE 28, 2023

Hospice of the Chesapeake Appoints New CMO Maryland-based Hospice of the Chesapeake recently named Dr. Marny Fetzer as its new chief medical officer. Fetzer is currently system medical director for palliative care and hospice services at Illinois-based Ascension Health.

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Hospice News

JUNE 8, 2022

Case in point, the Providence Institute for Human Caring last year launched a tele-palliative care program aimed at addressing rural patients’ unmet needs. They are a bigger barrier to palliative and hospice care than dairy cows.”. Snags along the way included dairy cows blocking staff from reaching patients.

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Hospice News

AUGUST 27, 2024

The role of clinical executives has morphed to include more business-related decisions alongside those regarding patient care delivery, Martin said. Historically in hospice at times the medical director and physician role has been [less] active and involved. Things have certainly changed,” Martin said.

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 16, 2022

Brazzale was the first physician to be selected for Trustbridge’s fellowship program when it launched in 2008 and has stuck with the nonprofit hospice provider ever since. In her new role, she’ll oversee Trustbridge’s medical staff providing home- and facility-based hospice care.

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Hospice News

JULY 11, 2024

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) 2025 proposed hospice payment rule contained a request for information (RFI) on the potential implementation of reimbursement pathways for “high intensity palliative care services,” such as chemotherapy, blood transfusion and dialysis.

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Hospice News

MAY 31, 2023

“It’s a challenge to navigate state rules with federal laws versus the hospice or palliative individual’s best interests and the end-of-life care plan.” If restrictions eased around controlled substances, then hospice providers might be more open to their use, according to Dr. Karl Steinberg, medical director for Hospice by the Sea.

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Hospice News

JUNE 14, 2023

. “In our NHE accounting, you will find spending on palliative care or hospice care in the hospital, nursing home and home health care sectors. We do not have projections at the level of detail of hospice-specific care for all payers for the NHE accounts.” ” In 2022, CMS paid $23.9

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Hospice News

MARCH 12, 2024

“To ensure hospice beneficiaries are served by high quality hospice providers, the current oversight system must be reformed and enforcement focused to uncover genuine instances of fraud, waste, and abuse,” said Katie Smith Sloan, president and CEO, LeadingAge, in a statement. “We

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Hospice News

JULY 23, 2024

That group has helped us in interviewing new potential hospice physicians and medical directors as well as helping onboard and create connections. The physician council has developed onboarding materials to help those physicians who are joining the organization to be able to understand the regulatory aspects of care.

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Hospice News

APRIL 3, 2024

She will oversee a hospice average daily census in the high hundreds, across four states and that size organization falls into the upper tier of mid-size providers and has us positioned for expansion.” The company’s roughly 7,000 employees provide care to an average daily census of more than 11,000 patients.

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Hospice News

MARCH 6, 2023

In some cases, numerous licensed hospices have been operating from the same addresses, often with the same CEOs, medical directors and staff. I’m working to find ways to empower hospice care providers.

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Hospice News

JUNE 29, 2023

As with nursing, the industry-wide labor shortage has impacted bereavement care, which is an underfunded service, according to Dr. Dawn Gross, palliative care physician at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Health. Gross is also a medical director at ANX Hospice Care.

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Hospice News

NOVEMBER 2, 2023

Caris Healthcare provides adult and pediatric hospice care to more than 40,000 patients and families across 28 locations in Georgia, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. Additional services include palliative care, a veterans program and care coordination.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 13, 2024

Employee feedback has most commonly centered around the importance of understanding the nature of hospice care and the interdisciplinary components involved, Psaras stated.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 3, 2023

Dr. Leena Dutta, medical director of hospice and in-home palliative care for the center, joined the program in May, 2022 and oversaw the initiative. Northeast Georgia’s home-based palliative system started through their hospice operations. That’s when we started to revamp the program.

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Hospice News

APRIL 26, 2022

Right now, we’re a community-based provider, and we also work with a hospital system to provide general inpatient hospice care. . It’s just a matter of time before the need for hospice rises. The health care system is strained. I get into the field right alongside our staff to provide hospice care.

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Hospice News

JULY 13, 2022

The statute prohibits the exchange of anything of value, or incentives that reward business referrals for services that are reimbursable by federal health care programs. FCA cases most commonly center around questions of a patient’s eligibility for hospice care based on a six-month terminal prognosis, an area that the U.S.

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