Hospice leaders have kept their eyes on four key numbers as 2022 progressed: clinical capacity, length of stay, labor costs and utilization. A fifth, the rising number of new hospices in certain states, has emerged as a priority in recent weeks. These metrics are key to understanding what hospices experienced this year. Though most aggregated, […]
Leaders of the U.S. Senate’s Comprehensive Care Caucus have asked federal regulators to examine program integrity within the Medicare Hospice Benefit. The four senators wrote to the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, urging the agency to investigate a spate of newly licensed hospice operators in multiple states that some […]
The omnibus spending bill currently set before Congress includes provisions that would extend the waiver for recertification using telehealth through the end of 2024, among other items pertaining to hospice. Legislators have released the text of the more than 6,000-page bill that is intended to fund the federal government for Fiscal Year 2023. Congress is […]
Hospice News spoke with a group of industry leaders — from publicly traded companies, private firms and nonprofit organizations — about the major trends and most pressing concerns on their radar as the new year approaches. Common threads among their remarks show that leaders in the hospice community continue to have their eyes on pervasive […]
Nurses at St. Charles Home Health and Hospice in Bend, Oregon, have unionized with the Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) to negotiate for improved working conditions, compensation and other issues. The home health and hospice provider is part of the St. Charles Health System, a nonprofit that serves communities in Central Oregon. The system also operates […]
Florida-based Hope Healthcare has affiliated with Chapters Health System, a nonprofit provider of hospice, palliative care and home health, among other services. Combined with its affiliates, Chapters Health is the largest nonprofit hospice provider in the nation and the sixth overall. Its staff of 3,330 and more than 2,430 volunteers care for more than 72,000 […]
SCAN Group and CareOregon have agreed to join forces in 2023 as a new organization called HealthRight Group. The new nonprofit will combine SCAN’s Medicare portfolio with CareOregon’s predominantly Medicaid health plans. Post-closing, HealthRight will launch a diversified business unit that integrates existing assets from both organizations, with a heavy emphasis on home-based care for […]
Most hospices are sliding into 2023 between a rock and a hard place, beset by headwinds, labor shortages and questions with no easy answers. Through the cracks, providers can see glimmers of improvement. A number of hospice leaders anticipate that the industry will settle into a “new normal,” having absorbed the shock of the pandemic […]
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) is poised to recommend that the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reduce the aggregate cap for hospice payments by 20% in 2024. The commission has yet to vote on the recommendations, but MedPAC has called for similar cuts annually since 2018. To date, Congress has not […]
Hosparus Health has cut the ribbon on a $1.7 million Community Center in Campbellsville, Kentucky, expanding its clinical service area and the range of services available to that community. Hosparus Health funded the project in part through its $500,000 People of Compassion comprehensive fundraising campaign. This extends the nonprofit hospice and palliative care provider’s Green […]