Tech Startup Autumn Launches Death Care Digital Marketplace

Tech startup Autumn has developed a death care digital marketplace to connect bereaved families with services. The company launches today following a $600,000 pre-seed funding round led by the investment firm Bullish Inc. To build its marketplace, Autumn has aggregated more than 500,000 local service providers, the startup reported. These include accountants, appraisers, attorneys, funeral […]

Hospices Pursue Home-Base Primary Care Via HCCI Project

A group of 17 Illinois health care organizations is collaborating to expand access to home-based primary care, including a number of hospice and palliative care providers. The providers are participating in the Illinois House Call Project, an initiative by the Home Centered Care Institute (HCCI). The project follows up on a similar HCCI program conducted […]

Why Some Referred Patients Never Make It to Hospice

Hospice referrals appear to be going up. But many patients who get the referral never receive the care due to low health literacy and social determinant of health factors. Among patients who received inpatient discharge instructions indicating hospice, nearly 1 in 10 did not enroll within 30 days of leaving the hospital, according to recent […]

Housing Insecurity a Threat to Seniors, Poses a Risk for Hospice Providers

Dying in America is expensive, putting some patients at risk of losing their homes. The issue of unstable housing has a direct impact on patients’ health care choices and outcomes, including ​​a higher incidence of aggressive treatments in their final days. The depletion of a family’s financial resources is a greater predictor of aggressive treatment […]

St. Croix Hospice Continues Missouri Expansion

St. Croix Hospice has expanded in Missouri with a Jefferson City de novo in the central region of the state. This is the company’s seventh Missouri location, bringing the number of counties St. Croix Hospice serves in the Show-Me State to 44. They opened a previous de novo in the city of Independence last March. […]

FTC Queries UnitedHealth Group, LHC Group on Wage Bargaining

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is seeking information from UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) and LHC Group Inc. (NASDAQ: LHCG) regarding the ways minimum wage workers in the space bargain for higher wages. The UnitedHealth Group subsidiary Optum in March announced that it would acquire LHC Group for $5.4 billion, subject to customary regulatory approvals. “As […]

Limited Access to Post-Acute Care Fuels Readmission Rates

The availability of post-acute resources, including hospice and palliative care, has a significant impact on hospital readmissions, but greater coordination among providers could drive improvement. The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) penalizes hospitals for readmissions rates that exceed certain thresholds, but the agency does not account for the supply of post-acute providers […]

Keys to Hospice Employee Engagement

With longstanding labor shortages reaching unprecedented levels, hospices are getting creative on recruitment and retention. The factors contributing to this scarcity are multi-faceted. They include questions about employee compensation, burnout, work-life balance, reimbursement levels, and rising rates of retirement as hospice workers age with the rest of the population, among others. As part of their […]

Encompass Health Completes Enhabit Spin-Off

Encompass Health (NYSE: EHC)  has completed its spin-off of Enhabit Home Health & Hospice (NYSE: EHAB), which as of today is a separate, publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Encompass announced the strategic repositioning of its home health and hospice segment in December 2020. The new company expects to earn nearly […]

CompleteOK to Open Texas De Novo Within 6 Months

Oklahoma-based Hospice provider CompleteOK recently entered the Texas market with the purchase of a license from Avenir Hospice Care for an undisclosed sum. With the license in hand, the company expects to open a de novo in that area within six months. Acquiring a license generally requires less capital than purchasing an entrenched asset already […]