Hospice News

FEBRUARY 28, 2025

Carol Miller (R-West Virginia) and Jared Golden (D-Maine) have reintroduced the Hospice Recertification Flexibility Act. If enacted, the bill would allow hospices to conduct face-to-face recertification visits via telehealth. Hospice care exists to provide comfort and compassion during heartbreaking times.

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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

DECEMBER 16, 2024

A California hospice owner and a freelance marketer have been convicted of Medicare fraud, totalling $3.2 Nita Palma of Glendale, California, in 2025 purchased Magnolia Gardens Hospice through her daughter and concealed her ownership from Medicare, according to the U.S. million in claims for purported hospice care.

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Hospice News

JANUARY 8, 2025

Six nonprofit hospice providers recently joined forces to form the Hawaii Palliative and Hospice Care Collaborative. The initiative is an effort to ensure sustainable access amid rising demand for end-of-life and serious illness care. This fell below the national average of 49.1% that year, the Alliance reported.

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Hospice News

APRIL 10, 2024

The Medicare Hospice Benefit could use an “upgrade” to ensure greater flexibility that may be necessary to fully support patients’ needs. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) should consider is retiring the six-month terminal prognosis requirement and allowing for some concurrent care, Wallace and Wladkowski indicated.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 10, 2025

He was so intrigued that he gathered a few volunteers and began Hospice of the Valley, which was largely a volunteer organization living off of a few grants here and there prior to when hospice Medicare reimbursement came around in the early 1980s. Over the years, Hospice of the Valley has grown.

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Hospice News

MARCH 22, 2023

Despite years of scrutiny over the duration of hospice care, new data show that longer stays reduce health care costs in the last year of life by as much as 11%. All told, hospice care — regardless of length of stay — saves Medicare approximately $3.5 billion for patients in their last year of life, a 3.1%

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 30, 2024

Growth in the number of Medicare Advantage beneficiaries will likely overtake that for traditional Medicare in 2025, according to new estimates from the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The hospice component of VBID is slated to end on Dec. This is up from 34.3 million as of September 2024.

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Hospice News

MARCH 10, 2025

Calvary Hospitals newly appointed president Michael Fosina is embarking on a deeper journey to improve quality and access to hospice care amid rising demand. Research and workforce growth will play large roles in the future of palliative and end-of-life care delivery, according to Fosina.

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Hospice News

APRIL 5, 2023

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will allow hospice patients to receive concurrent care through the Medicare Advantage hospice carve-in, and will permit health plans to further restrict utilization of out-of-network providers.

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Hospice News

MARCH 4, 2025

Scott Herman said in a statement shared with Hospice News. Bill is an icon in the industry and a staunch Medicare beneficiary advocate, always putting patients first and fighting for their rights and benefits. Dombi has litigated home health care policy matters since 1976. million in philanthropic funding to launch the shelter.

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Hospice News

NOVEMBER 27, 2024

Hospices’ public outreach efforts have evolved in recent years, with providers finding new strategies to dispel myths that have long impeded access to care. Nearly half, or 49.1%, of all Medicare decedents utilized hospice services in 2022, reported the National Alliance for Care at Home.

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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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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 21, 2025

Examining the future of dementia end-of-life care The findings demonstrate how the different approaches to dementia care can lead to comparable clinical outcomes, Reuben indicated. The post Dementia Support Gaps Compromise Hospice Care, Help Inform GUIDE Models appeared first on Hospice News.

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Hospice News

NOVEMBER 7, 2023

Allowing patients to receive concurrent hospice and curative care reduces health care costs and improves quality. The model’s 7,263 enrollees were Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries with a six-month terminal prognosis due to cancer, congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or HIV/AIDS.

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Hospice News

JANUARY 17, 2025

Their comments carried some common threads, including further movement towards value-based care, a need to secure payment through business-to-business partnerships, a need for more concurrent curative and hospice care, and a continued status quo of insufficient reimbursement.

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Hospice News

MARCH 7, 2025

How can we really partner with them on the talking points to broach these goals-of-care conversations so they understand what is included through Medicare and Medicaid services while still being comfortable in their homes. What are the services that Mahogany Home Health and Hospices is offering?

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Hospice News

JULY 14, 2022

Margin pressures from the proposed cuts to Medicare home health rates could impact palliative care and hospice. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in June released its proposed home health reimbursement rule for 2023, which included a 4.2% pay hike for hospice care in 2023.

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 23, 2024

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has made public its first cohort for the hospice Special Focus Program (SFP). Finalized in the 2024 home health payment rule, the program is designed to identify poor performing hospices, mandate quality improvement and in some cases impose additional penalties.

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 12, 2024

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has not responded to congressional concerns about the hospice Special Focus Program (SFP). Set for 2025 implementation, the SFP promises to identify hospices delivering poor quality care and target them for improvement remedies.

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Hospice News

NOVEMBER 16, 2023

Medicare fee-for-service programs made $31.23 billion in improper payments during 2023, though a smaller proportion of those dollars went to hospices than in years prior. Hospices received nearly 5.4% of improper payments from Medicare in 2023, down from 12% in 2022, according to a new report from the U.S.

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Hospice News

JULY 22, 2024

Medicare Advantage (MA) beneficiaries are less likely to receive intensive treatments or burdensome transfers during the last six months of life compared to those in traditional Medicare, a new study has found. However, they identified gaps in which patients don’t always receive sufficient post-acute care. “We

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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. One part of the issue is that hospice reimbursement has not kept pace with evolving patient needs, Grant said.

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 3, 2024

Holly Patterson Extended Care Facility. NuHealth was formally known as Nassau Health Care Corp. “By By offering inpatient hospice care at NUMC, we are ensuring all of Nassau County’s residents have access to compassionate end-of-life services regardless of their ability to pay,” said Megan C.

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 26, 2024

Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) has introduced the Hospice Care Accountability, Reform, and Enforcement (Hospice CARE) Act in the U.S. House of Representatives, which, if enacted, could revolutionize the Medicare Hospice Benefit. Hospice News photo by Merz Photography. The Alliance shares Rep.

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 20, 2022

and Susan Collins (R-Maine) introduced the Improving Access to Advance Care Planning Act to the Senate designed to promote greater access to those services among Medicare beneficiaries. Racial and socioeconomic disparities also exist when it comes to hospice referrals and quality of care. million, Grant told Hospice News.

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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 8, 2024

The research examined Medicare hospice beneficiary data including timely start of care following patient admission, disenrollment and live discharge rates, volume of patient visits, length of stay and billing claim amounts. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Care Compare site.

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Hospice News

JULY 16, 2024

The hospice community is contributing input to the development of the forthcoming Hospice Care Accountability, Reform, and Enforcement (Hospice CARE) Act. NPHI has consistently advocated for reform to the Medicare hospice benefit reimbursement methodology.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 1, 2024

The workforce shortage and value-based care will shape the future of hospice, according to some providers. The health care reimbursement environment is moving towards significant change. Hospice is a great space in health care. We can really compete in flexibility, whereas other areas of health care can’t as much.”

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Hospice News

JUNE 26, 2024

Development of the Hospice Care Accountability, Reform, and Enforcement (Hospice CARE) Act has signaled that a wave of change may be on the horizon in end-of-life care delivery – including how patients are certified to receive these services. The area of end-of-life care was ripe for a pilot project.

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Hospice News

JULY 31, 2023

Longer stays yield greater savings Regulators have fixed their gaze on longer hospice stays as signals of potential fraud, waste and abuse. Hospice care saves Medicare roughly $3.5 The longer the hospice stay, the more potential savings.” That’s a huge difference and a huge value to Medicare,” Munevar said.

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Hospice News

MARCH 12, 2025

Patterson is accused of certifying patients for hospice care who did not have a terminal condition and were not eligible to receive these services. The allegations also include receiving kickback payments for hospice patient referrals. He violated his oath as a physician to fight against health care fraud and waste.

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Hospice News

NOVEMBER 6, 2024

The SFP has the authority to impose enforcement remedies against hospices with poor performance based on its algorithm. Hospices flagged by the SFP also will be surveyed every six months rather than the current three-year cycle and could face monetary penalties or expulsion from the Medicare program.

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Hospice News

JULY 26, 2024

The most recent iteration of Hospice Care Accountability, Reform and Enforcement (Hospice CARE) Act, currently in a discussion draft phase, could have some unintended consequences in the future of end-of-life care delivery. What are some of the effects on the business models in terms of profit over patient care?

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Hospice News

JULY 12, 2024

The forthcoming Hospice Care Accountability, Reform and Enforcement (Hospice CARE) Act from U.S. Blumenauer announced the bill in June at the Hospice News Elevate conference in Washington D.C. Hospice News / Merz Photography Hospice News / Merz Photography Rep. Hospice News photo by Merz Photography.

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Hospice News

MARCH 15, 2024

Identification of risk factors for ADRs may prevent occurrences in the complex palliative care patient.” Impacts on quality, compliance Adverse drug reactions can detract from the overall experience of hospice care for patients and their families, Krout said. Hospices have come under closer scrutiny in recent years as the U.S.

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