Recent research findings are increasingly getting to the root causes of varying hospice outcomes among diverse patient populations and health care settings. Quality inequities among special needs, dually-eligible beneficiaries Dually-eligible Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries may have a lower likelihood of receiving care from high-quality hospice providers, according to a recent analysis. Dual eligible beneficiaries are […]
New trends in hospice care delivery are pointing to a growing need for improved equitable access and diversified services that address a broader range of disease-specific patient needs. The scope of terminal conditions among hospice patient populations has seen some evolutions in recent years, according to Alix Ware, director of health policy at the National […]
Hospices in 2025 are laser-focused on organic growth rather than other tactics like acquisitions. Among 112 hospice professionals who responded to the 2024 Outlook Survey by Hospice News and Homecare Homebase, 60% said that expanding current locations would be the growth tactic they plan to use the most during 2025. About 64% of the respondents […]
Terminally ill patients often lack a firm understanding and awareness about their end-of-life care options, a trend researchers across the world are examining more closely. Underserved neurological patients Patients with neurodegenerative diseases are less likely to receive hospice care compared to others, according to a recent study published in the Neurology journal. The study spanned […]
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 […]
