Economic and financial headwinds have increasingly posed significant challenges for rural-based hospice providers, with some shuttering their programs in recent years. The trend has limited access to hospice services among an already underserved population while also raising concerns around quality and trust in equitable care delivery, according to a recent study. The ability for providers […]
Medicare Advantage special needs plan (SNP) beneficiaries were more likely to use lower-quality hospices than those enrolled in fee-for-service Medicare. Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia examined Medicare enrollment and claims data for 4.2 million decedents and 2.2 million hospice enrollees from Jan 1, 2018 to Dec. 31, […]
The nation’s total health expenditures rose 7.5% to $4.9 trillion in 2023, a new analysis by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) found. This growth took place at a faster pace in 2023 than prior years. In 2022, health care spending rose at a rate of 4.6%. Total Medicare hospice spending accounted […]
The nation’s hospice utilization rate among Medicare decedents has once again surpassed 50%, for the first time since the pandemic. However, fraud issues in the space create questions around the quality of care patients are receiving. Hospice utilization reached 51.7% in 2023, up more than two percentage points from the prior year, according to recent […]
Hospice utilization has tripled among patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) during the past two decades. The trend has ignited concerns about these patients’ lengths of stay, as well as praise for hospices’ cost-savings potential. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers analyzed Medicare fee-for-service claims spanning between 1999 and 2019, including data […]
Growth in the number of Medicare Advantage beneficiaries will likely overtake that for traditional Medicare in 2025, according to new estimates from the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The agency projects that total MA enrollment will reach 35.7 million people following the open enrollment period slated to begin later this month, representing […]
Many home-based care workers often feel unsafe in their jobs, having a direct impact on hospice recruitment and retention. More than 50% of 400 home-based care employees said they had experienced or witnessed at least one instance of workplace violence or harassment in a recent report from Transcend Strategy Group. About 20% indicated that they […]
Recent research has found disparities in hospice discharge rates and outcomes among Black and Latino patient populations. Black and Hispanic patients are more likely to have shorter stays and be discharged from hospice into a hospital setting compared to others, according to a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) […]
Medicare Advantage (MA) beneficiaries are less likely to receive intensive treatments or burdensome transfers during the last six months of life compared to those in traditional Medicare, a new study has found. MA enrollees were also more likely to receive hospice care and less likely to receive facility-based care after a hospital discharge, according research […]
Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston applied an AI algorithm to facilitate timely transitions to hospice for patients presenting in the emergency department. After this effort was initiated in 2021, about 54% of eligible patients elected the hospice benefit, compared to 22% in years prior, a new study in JAMA Network Open indicated. For most […]
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