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‘NEXT STEPs’ Program Focuses on Enhancing Nursing Homes Services, Including Palliative Care

Hospice News

This is particularly true for people living in the nation’s 15,000-plus nursing homes. The grant, spread out over a five-year period, will be put toward the team’s creation of a national network structure that seeks to include more nursing home residents in clinical trials. As the U.S. Dr. Kathleen T.

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How Medicare Budget Neutrality Impacts Hospice Payment

Hospice News

Medicare reimbursement is the lifeblood of hospice providers, and a clear understanding of policies like budget neutrality can help elucidate the payment systems that keep their businesses running. But a similar move within the Medicare Hospice Benefit is unlikely. Though the is not yet final, the proposal included a 4.2%

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Medicare Claims for Unrelated Services Put Hospices at Risk

Hospice News

Medicare claims for unrelated services creates serious financial and legal risks for hospice providers — even if they are not the ones who sent the bill. During recent years, payouts for non-hospice services provided to Medicare beneficiaries have tipped into the billions. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

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How Palliative Care Could Help Break the SNF-to-Hospital Cycle

Hospice News

A dearth of coordination or integration between rehab teams and palliative care teams routinely forces some patients into a cycle between the hospital and the nursing home in their last year of life. Older adults frequently utilize such services, often in skilled nursing facilities (SNF).

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Mission Health Services Acquires Angel’s Crossing Home Hospice

Hospice News

The long term care company Mission Health Services has acquired Utah-based Angel’s Crossing Home Hospice. Mission is a nonprofit provider of nursing home, assisted living, short term care, memory care and therapy services. About 15,900 Medicare decedents in Utah elected hospice in 2022, a rate of slightly more than 59%.

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New Red Flags Emerge in Hospice UPIC Auditing

Hospice News

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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Understanding the Variability in Care of Nursing Home Residents with Advanced Dementia

GeriPal

If you develop dementia, odds are you will spend the last months to years of your life in a nursing home or assisted living facility. This study explored nursing home organizational factors and staff perceptions that are associated with the variation in care for residents with advanced dementia. Rehabbed to Death.