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. We’re trying to make this conversation as easy as possible to have,” Gurian told Hospice News. Warner (D-Va.) House of Representatives by Rep.

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 15, 2023

For the time being, Medicare Advantage may be providers’ best bet for palliative care reimbursement. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) also allows Medicare Advantage plans to cover palliative care as a supplemental benefit. She is also co-founder of the company’s hospice and home health service segment.

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Hospice News

MAY 7, 2025

There is always tension and debate around the value of palliative care, because if you look at it as a separate business unit, it always looks like a loss leader, Craig Dresang, CEO of the California-based hospice provider YoloCares, told Palliative Care News. Even if it secures only one payer, this is still a beneficial endeavor.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 19, 2025

That model aligns to a large degree with that used within the Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience (GUIDE) payment demonstration from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, according to study author and research scientist Dr. Greg Sachs with the Indiana University Center for Aging Research at Regenstrief Institute.

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Hospice News

JULY 13, 2023

The health care space — including hospice — is increasingly shaped by numbers. During the past several years hospice providers have had to become experts in data management in order to remain competitive. Hospices’ cost-savings potential A study published in March revealed that hospice saved Medicare roughly $3.5

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Hospice News

JANUARY 29, 2025

The two organizations, which have partnered on projects related to critical care hospitals and Medicare beneficiaries, will choose five rural communities in the state with the goal of increasing their capacity to provide palliative care.

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Hospice News

JUNE 15, 2023

After more than a decade working in hospice leadership, Alli Collins came across something she had never seen before — a financially viable, all-volunteer provider that is not Medicare-certified. I am the new executive director for Hospice and Palliative Care of the Wood River Valley. Even the nurses just volunteered their time.

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Hospice News

MARCH 14, 2024

Hospices, in aggregate, are showing improvement on the quality measure for visits in the last days of life. The number of registered nurse and social worker visits during a patient’s final week is one of the seven quality measures that CMS uses to evaluate providers. Through the predictive analytics data, hospice patients at St.

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 19, 2022

In 2022, the hospice community laid the groundwork for a transformational 2023. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) developed new approaches for enforcing hospice regulations that will become effective on Jan. The following are the most-read Hospice News articles of 2022. #1

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 16, 2022

and Susan Collins (R-Maine) have introduced a bill designed to foster greater access to advance care planning (ACP) among Medicare beneficiaries. The new bipartisan legislation would allow clinical social workers to provide ACP services if they possess a relevant certification or are experienced in conducting care planning conversations.

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Hospice News

AUGUST 23, 2022

A veteran of the senior services sector, Health has spent his 30-year career as a leader of hospice, senior housing, long term care, and PACE programs, in addition to a stint as a health care lobbyist. As a hospice leader, what are some of the things that have been keeping you up at night? And we see that in the hospice.

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Hospice News

JUNE 30, 2022

Texas-based senior living provider EdenHill Communities recently expanded to offer hospice services. The continuing care retirement community (CCRC) is located on a 27-acre campus, in which eligible residents are now able to access in-house hospice services. The company previously outsourced hospice services for residents.

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Hospice News

MARCH 22, 2024

A group of seven nonprofit hospices has launched a palliative care organization branded as Integrity Care Partners. The founding organizations are each members of the Texas Nonprofit Hospice Alliance, a regional collaborative of which Integrity Care Partners is an extension.

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Hospice News

AUGUST 12, 2024

Blue Ridge Hospice is launching its first Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) program, which will begin accepting participants on Sept. The launch reflects a longstanding trend of hospices diversifying their services to include upstream care, an area in which PACE programs are gaining ground.

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Hospice News

JANUARY 17, 2024

Hospice providers, industry groups and other stakeholders recently penned a letter urging Congress to improve payment infrastructures that would increase access to end-of-life care among rural populations. For some rural areas, they’re not seen as financially feasible or sustainable to larger programs,” Kuhlman told Hospice News. “So,

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Hospice News

NOVEMBER 11, 2022

The Improving Access to Advance Care Planning Act would expand utilization of these services by removing Medicare payment barriers faced by both providers and patients. The bill proposes to “wave,” or remove, Medicare beneficiary cost-sharing for advance care planning services. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Mark Warner (D-Va.)

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 12, 2023

Medicare Advantage organization SCAN Group has invested an undisclosed dollar amount in tech-enabled hospice startup Guaranteed. SCAN Group, parent company of SCAN Health Plan, is the latest investor in the hospice company. SCAN Group, parent company of SCAN Health Plan, is the latest investor in the hospice company.

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Traditions Health

JANUARY 5, 2025

Although you may have heard of hospice care , you may not know how its actually arranged. Because hospice is for terminally ill patients, it can be difficult to talk about for yourself or your loved one. Here is a guide to understanding the hospice admissions process. Why hospice care? Of course, every patient is unique.

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 8, 2023

Hospice providers will be looking to Congress in 2024 to address issues related to program integrity, quality improvement and industry-wide workforce pressures. As legislative efforts develop, hospices may want to focus their attention on a few key legislators. We don’t have confidence in the algorithm that they proposed.

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 1, 2023

Wages for hospice clinicians continue to go up amid widespread staff shortages, but they grew at a slower rate in 2023 compared to the prior year. Nationally, hourly wages for hospice RNs reached $38.08 Social worker wages went up 3.78%, as well as a 2.58% increase for chaplains.

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Hospice News

MARCH 23, 2023

On the patient side, Medicare beneficiaries face out-of-pocket costs when advance care planning is performed in any setting outside of an annual wellness visit. Currently, this includes only physicians, physician assistants, clinical nurse specialists and nurse practitioners, along with clinical social workers. “If

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Hospice News

JUNE 27, 2022

Social determinants are non-medical needs that can have a significant impact on the trajectory of patients’ health, such as nutrition, transportation, social or caregiver support, and housing, among others. Social and economic factors like these drive 40% of health outcomes, according to the Better Medicare Alliance.

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Hospice News

APRIL 22, 2022

Francis Reflections Lifestage Care recently opened a new inpatient hospice care center inside the Melbourne Regional Medical Center. A swelling demand for hospice in the community spurred the unit’s development. We are thankful the community will now have access to hospice care close to home to service the growing need.”.

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Hospice News

MAY 30, 2023

Los Angeles-based Hospice Home Care recently rolled out a scholarship program for hospice aides in a move towards building career pathways and improving retention. Los Angeles County needs to hear the voices of those who provide Los Angeles hospice care to the residents of this county as they near the end of life.”

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 26, 2024

Hospice operators in 2024 are navigating a rapidly transforming environment. The prior three years have laid the groundwork for change, particularly in the regulatory space as well as gradual migration towards value-based reimbursement and in tandem, the proliferation of business lines beyond hospice.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 2, 2023

Given the critical role of family caregivers in home-based care, hospices have a vested interest in expanding their access to support. And while hospices offer social workers and spiritual care, many families continue to have unmet needs that could impede some patients’ access to hospice.

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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. Without assistance or relief, these difficulties can impede access to hospice. The nonprofit program is part of Community Hospice, Inc.’s

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Hospice News

AUGUST 5, 2022

Primary care company CareConnectMD is building a network of hospice providers following a $25 million investment round last month. A key part of the California-based company’s growth strategy is to bolster the number of hospices in its preferred provider network, according to Founder and CEO Kim Phan. “We

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Hospice News

JUNE 29, 2023

Hospices often lack the financial and staffing resources needed to fully support bereaved families. Gross is also a medical director at ANX Hospice Care. Gross is also a medical director at ANX Hospice Care. Hospices are not reimbursed enough to support grief care teams,” Gross told Hospice News.

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 24, 2022

Careful management of hospice care manager workloads correlates with longer lengths of stay. For many patients length of stay is a week or less, which is too short for them to receive the full benefit of hospice care. Among the hospices that BerryDunn surveyed, 88% of the best performers kept case managers’ workloads between 13 to 18.

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Hospice News

APRIL 13, 2023

Idaho-based Hospice & Palliative Care of the Wood River Valley has initiated Spanish-speaking services in an effort to reach underserved Latino patients and families. However, language barriers can make those patients difficult to reach, according to Lisa Wild, executive director at Hospice & Palliative Care of the Wood River Valley.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 8, 2023

Hospice leaders would like to see some changes in the space this year, particularly around staffing, payer relationships and regulation. Hospice executives in December 2022 shared their predictions for what would happen in the space during 2023. Providers have reported shortages among social workers and nonclinical staff as well.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 12, 2024

Once among the nation’s largest home health and hospice providers, Humana Inc. The following year, the insurance giant divested Kindred’s hospice and personal care segments, selling a 60% stake to the private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier and Rice (CDR) for $2.8 The company has its roots in the former Kindred at Home.

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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 will replace the Hospice Item Set (HIS) quality reporting system.

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 13, 2023

Contessa is a subsidiary of Amedisys (NASDAQ: AMED), which the home health and hospice provider acquired in 2021 for $250 million. Since at least 2022, Contessa has been pursuing palliative care reimbursement through Medicare Advantage. Palliative care has always kind of sat in the shadows of hospice.

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Hospice News

APRIL 3, 2024

The research was published in the American Journal of Hospice & Palliative Medicine. The cost of these services facilitated by a registered nurse was $395 per caregiver, compared to $337 and $585 if offered by a social worker or nurse practitioner, respectively.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 10, 2023

If you were to write a book about hospice in 2023, what would you call it? To help answer that question, Hospice News asked the CEOs of eight providers how they would title a book about the state of the field today. Croix Hospice, AccentCare, Chapters Health System, Alivia Care, Enhabit, Inc., We want to make a difference.

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