The Key Questions in Designing the CMS Special Focus Program for Hospices

Hospice leaders are working with the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to ensure providers get a fair shake when the agency’s forthcoming Special Focus Program (SFP) comes to fruition. Initially proposed for 2022, the agency opted to delay implementation in response to feedback from hospices and industry organizations. Instead, CMS is convening […]

Hospices Likely to Ramp Up Behavioral Health Investments

Behavioral health care is a rising star in health care in terms of growth and demand, and the trend is leading some hospices to invest in the space. Several considerations are driving their growing interest. For one, addressing the psychosocial and emotional aspects of dying and bereavement has been an intergral part of the hospice […]

Androscoggin CEO: Modernization of the Hospice Benefit is Coming With VBID

As the hospice community takes its first steps into value-based reimbursement, stakeholders have an opportunity to re-examine elements of the Medicare Hospice Benefit that may be outdated, according to some providers. The hospice benefit became a formal part of Medicare in 1983. Initially, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicare Services (CMS) and its collaborators […]

Hospice CEOs: Rising Regulatory Scrutiny Could Spur 2022 Acquisition Market

The hospice merger and acquisitions market has been running hot, with activity showing no signs of cooling as 2022 kicks off. Even so, intensifying regulatory pressure could lead a larger contingent of smaller providers to sell, further stimulating the market. M&A activity in the home health and hospice spaces outpaced other health care service sectors […]

Nonprofit Hospices Selling to For-Profit Providers, Trend May Accelerate

Industry consolidation has been robust in the hospice space, with deal volume and valuations outpacing other health care industry sectors. Most of these transactions involve one for-profit company buying another. However, more instances are cropping up in which a for-profit agency purchases a nonprofit hospice. While individual nonprofits have grown in recent years, in aggregate […]

Androscoggin to Open New Maine Palliative Care Center

Lewiston, Maine-based Androscoggin Home Healthcare + Hospice will be expanding its palliative services with a new specialized care center in Portland, Maine. In addition to serving the community’s serious illness population, the Maine Center for Palliative Medicine will provide palliative care education and training programming to various health care clinicians and professionals. Hospices are increasingly […]