A bipartisan group of nine U.S. Senators have written to U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, calling for a payment model demonstration designed to support greater access to palliative care. The lawmakers urged the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) to develop a dedicated community-based palliative care benefit, which […]
As hospices continue to duke it out in the labor market, more providers are contending with competitors poaching their employees. A number of hospice leaders have told Hospice News that poaching is becoming a greater source of tension in the industry’s recruitment and retention ground war. This often comes with promises of higher wages, more […]
The labor pressures in the hospice community are straining clinical operations, but the issue is also becoming a more pressing concern when it comes to mergers and acquisitions. Buyers, in fact, are paying much closer attention to workplace culture and human resources as they select acquisition targets. Hospice M&A has been exploding in recent years […]
If enacted, the recently reintroduced Palliative Care and Hospice Education Training Act (PCHETA) could make a dent in the recruitment barriers that hospices keep hitting. But clinical education will need a much larger boost to ensure a sustainable workforce, according to many providers. The training issue is a serious impediment to hospice recruitment, as very […]
Hospice providers and patients are having difficulty procuring medications due to nationwide drug shortages, threatening quality of care and patients’ access to hospice. These include essential drugs for pain and symptom management. The scope of the shortages seems to be widening. Slightly more than 240 medications were in short supply at the close of Q1 […]
The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently proposed a 2.7% pay increase for hospice care for Fiscal Year 2023. However, that amount may be a drop in the bucket as COVID-19 headwinds rage, inflation surges and employee wages climb. Beyond the rising costs, Medicare is phasing in the return of payment sequestration, […]
VITAS Healthcare, a subsidiary of Chemed Corp. (NYSE: CHEM), is going toe-to-toe against referral disruption and continuing workforce pressures. The company came out of the first quarter bruised, but still on its feet. The pandemic continues to impact the company’s facility-based referral sources, particularly with the Omicron surge that lasted through much of the first […]
Paradigm Health CEO and founder retires After nearly a decade at the helm of Paradigm Living Concepts LLC (Paradigm Health), President and CEO Jeff Jarecki is stepping into retirement. Michelle Pickering will take the reins of the Indiana-based hospice and palliative care provider. Jarecki founded Indiana-based Paradigm Health in 2013. The company cares for more […]
On April 16 the United States observes National Health Care Decisions Day to foster awareness that patients and families have the right to discuss and document their wishes for the care they will receive at the end of life. True to form, hospices are at the forefront, encouraging patients, families and their clinicians to choose […]
Hospice inpatient centers have proliferated since the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) rebased payment rates in 2020. While reimbursement increases can foster growth, a convergence of factors complicate providers’ ability to balance a healthy margin with the expanded access to care. The 2020 rebasing instituted a 2.7% payment increase in payments for […]
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