After becoming a public entity last year, Enhabit Inc.’s (NYSE: EHAB) M&A journey has narrowed towards hospice, diverting less in home health’s direction. Reimbursement uncertainties, shrinking pools of available assets, and rising valuations in the home health space are forces steering the company’s sights towards hospice, according to Enhabit executives. Large-scale consolidation in both home […]
Integrating palliative consultations into care management for heart failure patients improves utilization and fosters greater understanding among referring clinicians, research from the Veteran Affairs (VA) Connecticut Healthcare System has found. VA Connecticut Healthcare System researchers recently rolled out the educational study to determine whether consultative services would boost palliative care referrals for hospital-based heart failure […]
Compassus and VNS Health have formed a value-based collaboration aimed at improving access, awareness and quality of hospice and palliative care services. The two home-based care organizations are joining forces in a Medicare Advantage (MA) Value-Based Insurance Design (VBID) model partnership. Through the collaboration, VNS Health and Compassus will help MA health plans to manage […]
The palliative care field is in the midst of evolution, with reimbursement and workforce dynamics being the dominant forces influencing sustainable growth in the space. Palliative providers are focusing their greatest efforts on navigating choppy, and often lagging, reimbursement streams to meet increased demand for serious illness care. These streams flow directly into their ability […]
Patient data collection is critical in how the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is developing health equity quality measures for hospices in value-based payment. The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) in 2022 announced a “strategy refresh” that included a renewed focus on health care equity in payment model design. Among […]
Hospice providers can face legal repercussions if they don’t strike the right balance in their payroll practices. Miscalculated compensation or miscommunicated policies are among the most common reasons that hospices are facing legal concerns related to staff compensation, according to Russell Bruch, partner at Morgan Lewis. Bruch assists employers with legal wage and salary matters […]
Patient preferences are trending towards home-based hospice care, leaving some inpatient facilities between a rock and a hard place. Meanwhile, other hospices diversify and expand their inpatient service capabilities. MercyOne Shutters Hospice House in Iowa MercyOne has closed its Iowa-based hospice center due to economic headwinds. The health system will no longer offer inpatient services […]
Penn Bay Medical Center is moving forward with plans to evolve its palliative care program. The medical center is an affiliate of the MaineHealth system and began providing hospital-based palliative care two years ago. It has since expanded into community-based serious illness care. The palliative growth was spurred by a two-year pilot project funded by […]
Research is growing around how certain substances such as psychedelics and cannabis can aid in treating pain, anxiety, depression, trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), grief, migraines and other medical conditions. Medical cannabis can also be beneficial in symptom management for cancer patients, according to recent research. For instance, certain compounds in the cannabis plant hold […]
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. Two hospice home care aides who have existing relationships with the organization will each receive a $1,000 scholarship to help advance their careers in the field by the end of this […]