LGBTQ+ communities have been historically underserved by hospice, often due to mistrust of the health care system as well as discrimination. Nearly 1 in 3 transgender adults reported that they had to teach their health care provider about transgender issues in order to receive appropriate care, according to a Center for American Progress 2020 survey. […]
Amedisys subsidiary (NASDAQ: AMED) Contessa Health has partnered with Texas-based health system Baylor Scott & White Health to develop a model for continuous care in the home, which includes palliative care components. The move is aimed at providing new alternative care models to extend comprehensive, coordinated care to patients’ homes, including hospital-level care, palliative and […]
A contingent of health care providers across the country are making new investments in pediatric palliative care, but building these programs is no easy feat. Many hit obstacles such as a dwindling workforce, limited access to training and a generally poor understanding of children’s specific needs. Though a rising number of hospices and other providers […]
Unified Program Integrity Contractor (UPIC) audits are on the rise among hospices, with some seeing penalties like reimbursement suspension or repayments. The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) contracts UPIC entities to conduct investigations and audits related to potential fraud, waste or abuse. While these audits have rooted out some bad actors, they […]
Hospices are leveraging expanded telehealth options to maximize access for hard-to-reach rural patients despite lingering regulatory uncertainties. Case in point, the Providence Institute for Human Caring last year launched a tele-palliative care program aimed at addressing rural patients’ unmet needs. Thus far, the initiative has yielded positive results, but the process hasn’t always been easy, […]
Hospice of the Red River Valley recently began construction on a new inpatient facility in North Dakota. Set to open by 2024, Heather’s House will expand hospice care options for both adult and pediatric patients. Development of the hospice house has been a long journey. The hospice’s recent announcement follows nearly two decades of fundraising […]
As awareness and acceptance of advance care planning gains ground among health care providers and the general public, children with life-limiting illnesses are sometimes left behind. Some stakeholders have sought to improve access to advance care planning for pediatric patients. Among them is the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), which recently released a set of […]
If enacted, the recently reintroduced Palliative Care and Hospice Education Training Act (PCHETA) could make a dent in the recruitment barriers that hospices keep hitting. But clinical education will need a much larger boost to ensure a sustainable workforce, according to many providers. The training issue is a serious impediment to hospice recruitment, as very […]
Without effective strategies to foster their own well-being, the psychological impact of working in hospice could cause staff to leave the field in greater numbers. Self-preservation is “paramount” to working in serious illness and end-of-life care, according to new research published in the Journal of Death and Dying. Hospice workers from England and Wales indicated […]
To weather continuous changes in the health care space, nonprofit hospices see an increasing need to work together. A trend is growing in which nonprofits form collaboratives in pursuit of greater efficiency and bargaining power with payers. Most recently, a group of five providers in Georgia and South Carolina formed the Southern Care Collaborative. Collaboration […]


