Telemedicine is becoming increasingly important in hospice care for communities nationwide, but the technology, increasingly called “telehospice,” is making its biggest impact in rural areas where clinicians may have to travel significant distances to reach the patient. Telehospice isn’t new, but it is rapidly expanding. The University of Kansas Medical Center piloted the first telehospice […]
Lexington, Ky.-based hospice provider Bluegrass Care Navigators has developed an integrative medicine program to help manage patients’ symptoms, such as pain and anxiety. Integrative medicine combines conventional medical care with complementary treatments such as bodywork or art and music therapy. The organization’s board of directors recommended the new service offerings at their recent meeting. “We […]
Ongoing workforce shortages in the hospice space are expected to worsen, with Florida taking the biggest hit due to the size of its population older than 65. The number of hospice and palliative care physicians and members of other disciplines will drop precipitously during the next two decades, largely due to retirements and staff leaving […]
Submitting inadequate or incomplete required written documentation is a sure-fire way to bring surveyors or auditors to a hospice’s doorstep. As regulators increasingly fix their eyes on the hospice space, providers are stepping up their efforts to ensure their documentation is airtight. The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) often treats issues such […]
Three California-based hospices — the Elizabeth Hospice in San Diego, Mission Hospice & Home Care in San Mateo and Hospice of Santa Cruz County — have formed a strategic partnership called the California Hospice Network to support the growth of community-based hospice care throughout their state. Though each network member will remain a distinct, independent […]
Avoidable emergency department (ED) visits add $32 billion to the nation’s health care costs annually, according to a new report from insurer United Healthcare, and hospice and palliative care providers are well positioned to help reduce that toll. Nearly 66% of hospital ED visits by privately insured patients in the United States are avoidable, meaning […]
Amid industry-wide staff shortages that are expected to worsen in coming years, VITAS Healthcare is leveraging current and prospective employees’ commitments to the hospice mission in efforts to build and retain its workforce, Nicholas Westfall, president and CEO of VITAS Healthcare, said in a second-quarter earnings conference call for parent company Chemed (NYSE: CHE). Hospices […]
Nearly 60% of clinicians and organizations that refer patients to hospice would put increased electronic health record (EHR) interoperability on their wish list —particularly the hospice’s ability to receive referrals electronically, according to a new report from Atlanta-based health care technology company Brightree. About 675 home health and hospices providers as well as 440 referral […]
Regulators have been zeroing in on hospice providers in recent years as utilization and expenditures continue to rise. Deficiencies in care planning is one area that is attracting increasing attention. A recent report from the U.S.Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General (OIG) indicated that more than 87% of the 4,563 […]
Hospices nationwide are exploring training programs using simulations of dementia systems; Raleigh, N.C.-based hospice provider Transitions LifeCare is taking their program to the next level to simulate the multiple co-morbidities that their patients often experience. Dementia simulators often involve goggles that demonstrate the effects of cataracts and macular degeneration, headsets buzzing with background noise and […]
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