Hospice providers are paying closer attention to the issue of drug diversion, as the opioid crisis continues and a rising number of prescription drugs finding their way to street dealers and black market internet sites. Consequently, pain management, one of hospices’ most essential priorities, has become more complicated. Hospice providers are seeking new ways to […]
CareCentrix and Turn-Key Health are integrating their respective care management and predictive analytic platforms to help identify seriously ill patients in need of community-based palliative care. The companies are integrating the CareCentrix HomeBridge platform with Turn-Key’s Palliative Illness Management (PIM) application. The combined system will bring 200 million discharge records from the HomeBridge program into […]
Profitability is becoming inseparable from quality in today’s health care marketplace. Consequently, strong performance on publicly reported quality and caregiver satisfaction data is becoming increasingly crucial to hospice business performance. Among the most important sources of data is the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) survey. Patients and families in increasing numbers are […]
The nation’s largest provider of hospice services, Miami-based VITAS Healthcare, has named Jeffrey M. Kreger to be its new executive vice president and chief financial officer. VITAS is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chemed Corp (NASDAQ: CHEM), which also owns Roto-Rooter. Kreger comes to the company at a time of strong financial performance. Kreger’s appointment […]
In response to reports of misapplication of opioid prescribing guidelines, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has clarified that those guidelines do not apply to end-of-life care, palliative care, or treatment of pain related to cancer. The guidelines, issued in 2016, recommends nonopioid approaches including physical therapy as a preferred first-line treatment […]
Technology is changing the ways hospice care is delivered. From the evolution of electronic medical records (EMR) to the advent of artificial intelligence (AI), hospice providers are leveraging new systems to create efficiencies, improve patient care, and make their organizations more attractive to investors. Numerous organizations are discovering the value of predictive analytics, telemedicine, and […]
Identifying patients in need of hospice earlier in the course of their illness is a business and moral imperative for hospice providers. Though conversations about end of life are difficult for everyone involved, including clinicians and social workers who facilitate them, they reap substantial benefits for patients, families, payers, and providers. Early conversations are positively […]
Lockport, N.Y.-based Niagara Hospice is applying new training and new methods to its recently expanded dementia care and family support program. Through the program, a dedicated dementia care team uses new behavioral monitoring, treatment techniques, and memory and sensory activities to improve patients’ quality of life and help them stay at home as long as […]
The nation’s 420,000 trained hospice volunteers generate more than $469 million in annual savings for hospice providers while administering and supporting essential services for patients, according to the National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO). Hospice volunteers provide more than 19 million hours of service annually. The estimated financial value of a hospice volunteer’s time […]
An upward trend in hospice utilization during 2018 brought a record number of patients into hospice for longer periods of time, according to a report from Atlanta-based research firm Excel Health. Hospice utilization among Medicare beneficiaries climbed above 50 percent during 2018, the highest rate since the 1983 inception of the Medicare Hospice Benefit. Meanwhile […]
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