Profitability is becoming inseparable from quality in today’s health care marketplace. Consequently, strong performance on publicly reported quality and caregiver satisfaction data is becoming increasingly crucial to hospice business performance. Among the most important sources of data is the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) survey. Patients and families in increasing numbers are […]
Hospice of Rutherford County, Inc., doing business as Hospice of the Carolina Foothills (HOCF), has signed a letter of intent to sell its inpatient unit to Agape Hospice. The organizations will not release financial terms until completion of the due diligence period. Under the letter of intent Agape Hospice has agreed to continue operation of […]
The nation’s largest provider of hospice services, Miami-based VITAS Healthcare, has named Jeffrey M. Kreger to be its new executive vice president and chief financial officer. VITAS is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chemed Corp (NASDAQ: CHEM), which also owns Roto-Rooter. Kreger comes to the company at a time of strong financial performance. Kreger’s appointment […]
Despite rate increases for some care levels, hospices would lose a dollar per patient, per day of routine home care under the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Fiscal Year 2020 proposed rule. The agency has proposed a 2.7 percent cut in payments to hospice providers for routine home care. Corresponding 2.7 percent […]
The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has unveiled a set of voluntary five-year payment models under a program called Primary Care First. Though today’s announcement focused on primary care, hospices and palliative care providers will be able to participate in the new models, according to the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC), […]
Hospices in Fiscal Year 2020 would be required to provide an election statement addendum upon request from the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), if the agency makes final provisions in a recently proposed rule. If the agency were to request such an addendum from a hospice, submission of that document would become […]
The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) intends to raise hospice payment rates for certain levels of care by 2.7 percent for Fiscal Year 2020, according to a proposed rule that outlines the agency’s regulatory priorities for hospice in the coming year. The increases apply to continuous home care, inpatient care, and inpatient […]
As hospices ready themselves for a Medicare Advantage (MA) carve-in, U.S. Reps. Suzan DelBene (D-Wa.) and Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) plan to introduce a bill to reduce regulatory burdens associated with the prior authorization process, a legislative aide from DelBene’s office told Hospice News. Though the bill text is not yet complete, the co-sponsors are basing […]
In response to reports of misapplication of opioid prescribing guidelines, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has clarified that those guidelines do not apply to end-of-life care, palliative care, or treatment of pain related to cancer. The guidelines, issued in 2016, recommends nonopioid approaches including physical therapy as a preferred first-line treatment […]
The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is working to fix bugs in the Medicare claims processing system resulted in underpayments to hospices during 2018 and early 2019. The agency also alerted hospices to revised rules for electronic signatures and appeals. CMS last year altered Medicare’s claims processing systems to better identify prior […]
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