Palliative Care the Next Generation: How the Service May Grow and Evolve

Based on current trends, risk-based payment systems will likely shape the future of palliative care. The palliative care market is projected to swell during the next decade. However, no standardized definition exists for “palliative care.” Providers use a range of approaches to providing the service, from consults with advance care planning to short-term transitional care […]

Predictive Analytics ‘Gives Hospices a Lens’ into Quality, Compliance

Hospices are leveraging predictive analytics to get a clearer picture of their performance amid regulatory pressures. Hospices have relied on data to enhances their ability to assess the quality and quantity of bedside care delivered during a patients’ final days. This includes two key quality measures: Hospice Visits in the Last Days of Life (HVLDL) […]

AccentCare, Memorial Hermann Health System JV ‘Throws Gauntlet’ into Home Health, Hospice

Dallas-headquartered AccentCare is forming a joint venture with Houston-based Memorial Hermann Health System. Through the JV, the two health care organizations are combining their home health and hospice operations in south Texas to form a new entity. AccentCare will take the lead on managing the home-based care business. Joining forces will allow the organizations’ to […]

Nursing Educator Shortage Contributing to Hospice Labor Pressures

When retiring hospice nurses are ready to pass the torch, often no one is there to take it. The same applies to instructors in nursing schools who could help replenish their ranks. A dearth of nursing educators is contributing to hospice workforce shortages, leading providers to compensate by expanding in-house training programs. Currently, nursing schools […]

Hospice Leaders: Dollars Alone Won’t Solve the Turnover Conundrum

Money isn’t everything when it comes to recruitment and retention. While compensation is an important factor for attracting and keeping staff, hospices need to consider other crucial aspects. Employee benefits, a career path, organizational culture and leadership engagement also weigh into workers’ decisions to join, stay or leave a hospice. Hospices should take a close […]

4 Ways Hospices Are Pursuing Growth in 2023

Hospices are blazing trails toward growth, each provider with its own range of strategies. In 2023, the focus for many is to not only expand their core business but to spread further into the care continuum. Others are traveling a more traditional route, through de novos and acquisitions, though some are modifying their approaches in […]

AccentCare Leverages Data, Transparency to Build Diverse, Inclusive Workforce

Aiming to foster greater diversity, equity and inclusion in its ranks, AccentCare has developed an annual program to study the demographics of its workforce. The hospice and post-acute care provider recently unveiled a study of its nearly 30,000 active employees in an effort to both understand and improve driving forces that create a culture of […]

Key Trend for Hospices to Watch: Managed Care Becomes a Juggernaut

As the health care ecosystem changes, hospices will have to evolve. Going forward, this will likely include more engagement with managed care organizations. Though hospices operate within the dedicated Medicare benefit, market forces in the system at large wield considerable influence on how they operate — including the meteoric rise of managed care. This is […]

AccentCare CEO Rodgers: Hospice, Health System JVs Build Ecosystem Around Patient

Forging partnerships with health systems and physician groups has become a cornerstone of AccentCare’s growth strategy as it seeks to expand the breadth of its post-acute care services. Collaborations and joint ventures are becoming more common in the hospice space as providers try to reach patients further upstream, diversify services and mitigate staffing shortages by […]

Hospice News’ Top 10 Stories of 2022

In 2022, the hospice community laid the groundwork for a transformational 2023. This year saw industry-changing acquisitions, some of the worst labor headwinds to date, the return of sequestration and a sometimes volatile national economy. During late 2021 and 2022, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) developed new approaches for enforcing hospice […]