Hospice News

APRIL 11, 2025

My generation, baby boomers, were not going to a nursing home. In 2022, more than 907,000 Medicare hospice decedents were older than 85, out of 1.7 million total patients, according to the National Alliance for Care at Home. The lions share of assisted living residents are aged 85 or older, AHCA/NCAL reported.

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 20, 2024

Unified Program Integrity Contractor (UPIC) auditors are taking a sharper look at nursing home room-and-board for hospice patients. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) contracts UPICs to investigate instances of suspected fraud, waste and abuse. We’ve found flaws in how they assemble the [claims] universe.”

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 12, 2022

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in 2023 will phase out dual-eligibility special needs look-alike plans within Medicare Advantage. Some hospice patients rely on these plans for other health needs, such as nursing home costs. Of those, about 3.8

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Hospice News

JUNE 14, 2023

Meanwhile, Medicare hospice spending is expected to more than double by 2032. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Office of the Actuary also project that health care expenditures will represent 19.6% However, the annual Medicare Trustees Report for 2023 provides a more detailed look at hospice spending.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 14, 2024

PACE programs offer a comprehensive approach to care for participants who meet certain eligibility criteria, mainly to seniors who have significant medical and non-medical needs to help them age in place and avoid the hospital or nursing homes. Most PACE participants are dually eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid, the U.S.

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Hospice News

MARCH 29, 2024

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed a 2.6% billion in annual savings for Medicare, which underscores the critical importance of investing in hospice to ensure continued beneficiary access to quality end-of-life care.” Hospice care saves Medicare roughly $3.5 In a proposed rule released yesterday, the U.S.

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Hospice News

MARCH 21, 2024

Members of Congress are raising questions about the continued Medicare certification for new hospices in areas rife with fraud. 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.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 27, 2023

Medicare Advantage (MA) beneficiaries are more likely to enroll in hospice from a community setting than patients in traditional fee-for-service programs. In 2011, for example, 50% of MA patients came to hospice from the community, compared to 39% of those in traditional Medicare. This is close to half of all Medicare beneficiaries.

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Hospice News

MARCH 29, 2023

Are you in an outlier scenario with your data that Medicare contractors are looking at? Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the U.S. In 2020, the average length of stay for Medicare patients enrolled in hospice was 97.0 according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission. Young told Hospice News.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 3, 2023

About 143,284 Medicare decedents elected the hospice benefit in 2021, according to the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the third highest in the nation. By 2030, an additional 5.2 million residents of the Lone Star State are expected to enter that age group, Elder Options of Texas reported.

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Hospice News

AUGUST 6, 2024

The nonprofit senior care provider Empath Health is partnering with the Medicare Advantage organization American Health Plans (AHP), a division of American Health Partners to serve patients who are enrolled in Institutional Special Needs Plans (ISNP). The ISNP program will in time extend throughout the state of Florida, according to Fleece.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 12, 2025

Our job within PACE is to keep those participants out of [nursing homes]. The company is also launching a Medicare Advantage Institutional Special Needs Plan, or ISNP, for patients in Florida. We are one of the pioneers in Florida, and now nationally, around the PACE program, Fleece said.

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Hospice News

JUNE 13, 2024

The bill would also implement a temporary, national moratorium on the enrollment of new hospices into Medicare, to help stem the tide of fraudulent activities among recently established providers concentrated primarily in California, Arizona, Texas and Nevada. “We

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Hospice News

MAY 4, 2022

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has reimbursed palliative care through a fee-for-service model that only covers physician and licensed independent practitioner services, rather than the full range of interdisciplinary care. They also must become adept at negotiating with payers, such as Medicare Advantage plans.

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Hospice News

JUNE 2, 2023

In 2021, more than 22,000 Medicare decedents elected hospice care in Kentucky. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Because most of the individuals accessing PACE are going to be Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries,” Cook told Hospice News in January. “A It currently serves six Kentucky counties.

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Hospice News

JANUARY 11, 2023

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) requires operators to report incidents of patient abuse and neglect that involve their staff. GAO determined that under current rules abuse reports from hospices may be less complete or timely than those from nursing homes and hospitals.

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

They enrolled patients with long-term incurable diseases such as Alzheimers and dementia as well as patients with limited mental capacity who lived at group homes, nursing homes and in housing projects.” Justice Department indicated in a statement.

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 27, 2023

Critics argue that PE and PTCs could prioritize short-term, above-market returns, which may lead to agencies selectively enrolling and targeting patients who require less complex care and longer hospice stays, such as those with dementia and nursing home residents.”

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Hospice News

MAY 8, 2023

The provider’s executive team combines Fluhart’s business experience with the clinical expertise brought by Hughes, a nurse practitioner herself. We’re growing pretty exponentially right now, especially in skilled facilities like nursing homes and such. It’s not the same as home health and hospice.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 24, 2023

VITAS saw nursing home admissions rise 9.4% and home-based admissions also dipped 7.5%. The decline resulted from the reinstated 2% Medicare sequestration, a 2.8% reduction in total days of care and a geographically-weighted average Medicare reimbursement rate increase of approximately 3.2% in Q4, along with a 2.7%

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 22, 2024

The cap is designed to prevent overuse of hospice, put controls on Medicare spending and foster greater access to care among patients. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services set the cap at $33,394. If a hospice has a cap liability, they will have to repay that amount to Medicare. For Fiscal Year 2024, the U.S.

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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. This was not thrust upon the community.

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 29, 2022

The Alzheimer’s Association projects the total cost of care for dementia patients to reach $321 billion in 2022, including $206 billion in Medicare and Medicaid. These patients experience high rates of hospitalizations, readmissions, emergency department visits, and nursing home admissions, the association reported.

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Hospice News

JANUARY 16, 2023

They included VA hospice encounters in the outcome but not enrollment in a home hospice program, nursing home hospice center or Medicare-paid hospice.

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Hospice News

JANUARY 25, 2023

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for a PACE license, according to CEO David Cook. Because most of the individuals accessing PACE are going to be Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries,” Cook told Hospice News at the Home Care 100 conference in Orlando, Florida. “A

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 5, 2022

CommCare’s purchase of Notre Dame’s home health and hospice operations marks the transaction of this divestiture Its nursing home services are next in line as part of a separate deal set to close in 2023. For us, home health is a new business that we believe has great future potential.”. currently, according to the U.S.

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Hospice News

JUNE 3, 2024

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) included the updates in its proposed hospice payment rule for 2025. Hospice industry organizations have voiced support for proposed updates to the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) surveys, but raised questions on the implementation timeline.

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Hospice News

MARCH 27, 2024

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) expanded a Condition of Participation pertaining to disaster preparedness planning. For hospice and palliative care providers, many were unable to reach patients in facilities and at times could not provide care in some homes, Baker Rogers indicated. In 2017, the U.S.

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 13, 2024

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ramped up auditing activity in the space while also sunsetting the hospice component of its value-based insurance design (VBID) model demonstration ahead of its initial expiration. The financial incentives in Medicare Advantage are designed to reduce overutilization, researchers indicated.

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Hospice News

NOVEMBER 1, 2022

Since 2020, the company has been beleaguered by the staffing shortage, reduced lengths of stay, and disruption in skilled nursing, senior housing, and to some extent acute-care referrals. These factors, along with the return of Medicare sequestration, have contributed to declining revenues. drop among those referred from hospitals.

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Hospice News

MAY 4, 2023

Historically, home-based care and hospice providers have worked primarily within Medicare fee-for-service models. Now, health care companies will have to work with a broader range of entities in order to thrive, including private insurance plans, Medicare Advantage Organizations and Medicaid managed care.

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Hospice News

MAY 30, 2023

A major reason for these gaps in access is the lack of a standard payment model to finance palliative care services – there is no Medicare benefit for palliative care, nor do most private insurance companies include palliative care benefits in their coverage. While the large majority of U.S. Are there ways to mitigate those obstacles?

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Hospice News

APRIL 4, 2024

Current reimbursement structures within the federally established Medicare Hospice Benefit do not sufficiently support the level of care needed in rural-based communities, according to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO). “We House of Representatives’ Ways and MeansCommittee.

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Hospice News

JUNE 12, 2023

In New Jersey, a partnership between a health services company and a nursing home is offering a new approach to long-term illness, tailoring palliative care treatment plans to individual patients. The company is open to taking part in value-based programs such as Medicare Advantage plans, Goldfine said. “We

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Hospice News

APRIL 28, 2022

Sinai partnership marks Contessa’s first risk-based palliative care contract, which is reimbursed through Medicare Advantage. With this in place, the company now offers a full continuum of home-based care. The deal has since opened doors to new mergers and acquisitions, as well joint venture opportunities for Amedisys.

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Hospice News

APRIL 11, 2024

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which requires providers to acquire a building and design a center to house a PACE program. To qualify for PACE, residents must be 55 and older, in need of nursing home-level care and able to safely receive community-based services in a home-based setting.

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Hospice News

MAY 2, 2023

There are certain things that will go away with the public health emergency that should help with our average daily census,” Bickham said, specifically pointing to nursing home policies. ”We The company has taken a two-pronged growth approach as it expands in the personal care and home health spaces.

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