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. Regulators have been zeroing in around hospices’ data when it comes to patient interviews and Medicaid skilled nursing room-and-board payments, among other aspects of care delivery.

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Hospice Medicare Document Nursing home 272

GeriPal

MARCH 10, 2022

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.

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 25, 2024

Then we have a home program where we have an advanced illness program in which our nurse practitioners go to the home of patients with advanced illness to assist them in symptom management and often assist them in changing their focus of care from back and forth to the hospital, to focus on being at home and even accessing hospice services.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 14, 2023

The Medicare Hospice Benefit should allow some concurrent care, and Congress should support greater access to palliative care, among other reforms, according to LeadingAge. The senior care advocacy organization wrote to Congressional leaders today calling on lawmakers to devote attention to improving the 40-year-old benefit.

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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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Palliative care Palliate Medicare Definition 240

Hospice News

JANUARY 26, 2024

The study spanned data among 199,828 Medicare decedents 50 and older who died in 2018. More than half (59%) spent the last three years of life in the home. About 27% were in skilled nursing home care with “heavy use” of home health and hospice.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 21, 2024

Utilization of the general inpatient level of care (GIP) is frequently the subject of audits by Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs), and avoiding or responding to that scrutiny requires strict compliance to a complex web of rules. If GIP billing exceeds that metric, the hospice must refund those payments to Medicare.

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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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NOVEMBER 4, 2024

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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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

MAY 8, 2023

The company employs nurse practitioners and other clinicians to provide palliative care in the home. At the same time, PalliCare helps nurse practitioners interested in setting up their own palliative care practices. We’re growing pretty exponentially right now, especially in skilled facilities like nursing homes and such.

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Palliative care Palliate Medicare Geriatrics 208

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 Long-term care 2019 Nursing home 201

GeriPal

NOVEMBER 7, 2024

As background, we discuss Manju Kurella Tamura’s landmark NEJM paper that found, contrary to expectations, that function declines precipitously for nursing home residents who initiate dialysis. So, for example, you know, we see somebody coming in from the nursing. A nursing home. Let it be (hint hint).

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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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Social worker Palliative care Palliate Social work 255

Hospice News

MAY 5, 2022

Transitions Hospice is a portfolio company of the Transitions Group, which also holds skilled nursing, home health, medical equipment and therapy assets. It’s really enhanced how quickly a patient can be seen and treated, but we’re also reducing the Medicare cost by being able to come and provide the services immediately.”.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 24, 2023

The bonus program included a one-time retention payment that ranged from $2,000 to $15,000 per employee for nurses, nurse managers, home health aides and social workers. The majority of these hires were nurses, Westfall indicated. VITAS saw nursing home admissions rise 9.4% in Q4, along with a 2.7%

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2023 2022 Social worker Medicare 194

Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 27, 2023

Care in the home, as opposed to a nursing facility or other setting, also rose an average 3.4%. Among hospices purchased by PE firms, the number of dementia patients served rose by 6% compared to for-profit providers that were not acquired, a new study in JAMA Research Open found. rise in dementia patients and a 5.3%

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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

JANUARY 31, 2023

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)] needs to consider what other flexibilities that emerged with the PHE can be made permanent, particularly several administrative, supervisory parts of the Conditions of Participation,” Dombi told Hospice News.

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Hospice Palliative care Palliate Medicare 256

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. Established in 1994, CommCare offers skilled nursing and rehabilitation services throughout Louisiana. Census Bureau.

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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

APRIL 28, 2022

Tennessee-based Contessa Health provides a continuum of home-based care, including high-acuity services such as hospital-at-home and skilled nursing-at-home services. Home health and hospice provider Amedisys acquired the company last June for a price tag of $250 million. Sinai Health System in New York.

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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

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 19, 2023

Last year VNA Health Group enhanced its dementia care training programs for social work and nursing staff, with an emphasis on its home health patients. VNA Health also has plans to possibly add psychiatric advanced practice nurses into their clinical teams, though this initiative is in its early stages.

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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

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

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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