Hospice Providers See Strong Opportunities in High-Needs Direct Contracting

A rising number of hospice and palliative care providers are turning their eyes towards the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation’s high-needs direct contracting payment option, which is designed for coverage of patients with multiple serious or chronic conditions. Since becoming operational April 1, hospices have increasingly adapted their services and programs to fall under […]

Hospices to Adapt to Primary Care Role Under Direct Contracting

Hospices nationwide have been diversifying their services in recent years to capitalize on value-based payment models and to establish relationships with patients further upstream in the course of their illnesses. An increasing number of hospice providers are offering PACE, home-based primary care, and palliative care, among others. These programs will be essential for those considering […]

Hospices See Big Opportunities in Direct Contracting, But Care Must Move Upstream

When the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in 2019 announced its Primary Care First Serious Illness Population model, many hospices saw the program as their greatest opportunity for successful participation in the agency’s alternative payment structures. While interest in the program remains high, many providers are shifting their gaze towards the direct […]

Changemakers: Leonard D’Avolio, Founder and CEO, Cyft

Leonard D’Avolio has spent his 17-year career in government, the private sector and academia working to improve the quality in the health care system. D’Avolio is the co-founder of Cyft, a firm that uses data and artificial intelligence technology to improve clinical care. He is also an assistant professor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in […]

Cyft Learning Collaborative Aims to Help Hospices Navigate Value-Based Payment Models

Massachusetts-based health care data analytics firm Cyft Inc. has established a nationwide effort to help health care organizations, and hospices in particular, learn to better collect, analyze and leverage data to support patient care and improve negotiating power with payers as well as referral partners. The Serious Illness Performance Collaborative is designed to educate providers […]

Hospices Leverage Machine Learning to Improve Care

Hospice providers are using new machine learning tools to identify patients in need of their services earlier in the course of their illnesses and to ensure that patients receive appropriate levels of home visits in their final days.   While hospice utilization is rising, lengths of stay for many patients remains too short for them to […]