Why Hospices Are Pursuing Home-Based Primary Care

As health care stakeholders work to improve care coordination, more hospices are exploring home-based primary care. Offering those services can help hospice and palliative care providers engage patients further upstream, as well as offer a more comprehensive suite of services to meet their needs, according to Melissa Singleton, chief learning officer at the Home Centered […]

Startup The Wound Company on the Hunt for Hospice Partnerships

Stealth startup The Wound Company has launched operations after securing $4.25 million in seed funds from Susa Ventures and Sozo Ventures. The new company’s eyes are now fixed on expansion and hiring talent. Among its goals is to build partnerships with health plans as well as other health care providers, including home health and hospice […]

Mettle Health Stepping Up Clinical Education

Many patients fall through the cracks of the nation’s health care system, and hospice and palliative care providers can help to fill in some of those gaps, according to Sonya Dolan, director of operations at California-based Mettle Health. Mettle Health took root in 2020 when hospice and palliative care physician BJ Miller co-founded the for-profit […]

Hospices Must Leap Hurdles to Provide Pediatric Inpatient Care

Barriers to expanding pediatric inpatient hospice care include a lack of specialized facilities as well as staff who are sufficiently trained to provide those services. Children are an underserved population in the hospice realm, particularly when it comes to inpatient care. Seriously ill children and their families often do not have access to inpatient services, mainly […]

Lack of Staff, Guidelines Build Hurdles for Hospice Bereavement Care Programs

Hospices often lack the financial and staffing resources needed to fully support bereaved families. As with nursing, the industry-wide labor shortage has impacted bereavement care, which is an underfunded service, according to Dr. Dawn Gross, palliative care physician at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Health. Gross is also a medical director at ANX Hospice […]

New CMOs for Hospice of the Chesapeake, Care Synergy; HopeWest Taps New VP

Hospice of the Chesapeake Appoints New CMO Maryland-based Hospice of the Chesapeake recently named Dr. Marny Fetzer as its new chief medical officer. Fetzer is currently system medical director for palliative care and hospice services at Illinois-based Ascension Health. She will step into the role at Hospice of the Chesapeake in July, alongside seeking a […]

Certificate of Need Laws May Influence Hospice Quality Outcomes

Links exist between state certificate of need (CON) laws and hospice quality outcomes, researchers recently found. Roughly 86% of all hospices nationwide provide services in states that do not have certificate of need (CON) regulations in place, according to research from the American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. The remaining 14% of hospices in […]

How Gender-Affirming Care Bans Could Impact Hospice Access, Utilization

Hospice providers are growing increasingly concerned about how state laws related to transgender rights may impede access to their services among LGBTQ+ communities. A rash of states have recently passed legislation to ban the delivery of gender-affirming health care, including Idaho, Indiana, Mississippi and Tennessee, among others. What’s happening in these states has caused mounting […]

The Hap Foundation, Illinois Hospice and Palliative Care Organization Reach New Management Agreement

The Illinois Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (IL-HPCO) has penned a three-year association management contract with The HAP Foundation to provide counsel and operational support. The two organizations have copacetic missions. The HAP Foundation is an independent nonprofit that provides experienced hospice and palliative care management staff who can assist organizations by leading their operations, […]

Where Hospices Are Seeing the Greatest ROI on Staffing Investments

Amid persistent workforce shortages, sign-on and employee referral bonuses, as well as enhanced benefits, are bearing the most fruit for hospice providers. Though many providers are reporting upward trends when it comes to recruitment and retention, some clinical and administrative vacancies remain pain points. Filling gaps in the hospice workforce has come with hefty financial […]