Accountable care organizations (ACOs) view prevention of hospitalization, readmissions and emergency department visits as top priorities, according to new research published in Health Affairs. Hospices marketing themselves to ACOs would do well to keep those metrics in mind when interfacing with those organizations. Close to 1,000 ACOs cover 44 million patients nationwide as of the […]
Non-medical needs related to social determinants of health have a significant impact on the trajectory of patients medical care. Community-based palliative care delivered in the home can help patients address these needs, avoiding costly and unnecessary hospitalizations and emergency department visits, according to a recent paper from Turn Key Health. Social determinants of health include […]
A rising number of Medicare Advantage plans are offering home-based palliative care as a supplemental benefit. This year, 61 plans offer a palliative care benefit compared to 15 during 2019, a new Duke University report indicates. Hospices provide about 50% of home-based palliative care in the United States according to the Center to Advance Palliative […]
Advance care planning is associated with longer life among terminally ill patients, a recent study in BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care found. Through advance care planning, patients make clear their wishes and goals for end-of-life care and communicate that information to their clinicians as well as their families. Advance care plans also typically include the […]
Data on the availability of community-based palliative care services is limited, but new numbers from the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) show that at least half of the in-home providers of those services in the United States are hospices. CAPC recently completed a three-year project to quantify the prevalence of community-based palliative care providers […]
For the first time since the early 20th Century more people are ending their lives in their homes rather than the hospital or a nursing facility, according to a new report that appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine. The percentage of deaths that took place in a private residence rose to 30% in […]
The United States is in the top tier compared to other nations in terms of patient access to palliative care, though much of the country remains underserved despite rising demand. Only 14% of the global population has access to palliative care at the highest level of provision, with the highest concentrations in European countries, according […]
The average length of stay for hospice patients in the United States rose 5% to 77.9 days during 2018, up from 74.5 days in 2017, according to a new report from health care data analytics firm Trella Health. Length of stay has been a double-edged sword for the hospice industry. A main goal for most […]
Though the hospice space remains fragmented, mergers and acquisitions are driving up market share, particularly for large providers. Along with service diversification and application of emerging technologies, M&A is helping to drive growth among the organizations named in LexisNexis Top 100 Hospices of 2019. With 4.5% of market share, VITAS Healthcare, a subsidiary of Chemed […]
A large proportion of U.S. adults continue to have a limited understanding of hospice care, and misperceptions continue to persist, according to a new MorseLife Hospice and Palliative Care survey. Nearly 40% of people in the United States believe that the sole purpose of hospice care is to sedate patients approaching the end of life […]