‘It Takes a Village’: The Need to Expand Community-Based Pediatric Palliative Care

Similar to adults, many seriously ill children prefer to die in the home versus in facility-based care settings. But several barriers are preventing greater access to goal-concordant, community-based pediatric palliative care delivery. The challenges in some ways mirror issues among adult populations such as insufficient clinical resources, caregiver burden or lagging family support in the […]

‘Extra Steps’: Building Strong Pediatric Palliative Referral Partnerships

Supporting seriously ill children and youths can come with higher costs and greater complexities compared to adult populations. Sustaining pediatric hospice and palliative care programs involves employing dynamic referral and financial strategies in today’s health care landscape. Pediatric programs often face challenges when establishing a firm financial foothold, with funding a main obstacle hindering growth […]

Hospices Leaders: ‘Vigilant’ Compliance Pivotal in MAC Auditing Climate

The auditing environment has heated up in the hospice industry, with inconsistencies reportedly proliferating among the various types of regulatory enforcement activity — particularly those performed by Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs). The issue has some hospice providers delving deeper into a range of compliance strategies. Differences exist in the scope of data being reviewed by […]

3 Quality Keys Driving Hospice Staff, Family Caregiver Satisfaction

Research has uncovered common threads of quality impacts among the largest hospices nationwide as providers employ a range of initiatives to uproot the underlying causes of staff and family caregiver dissatisfaction. Strong communication, streamlined operational processes and an encouraging organizational culture are three significant drivers of positive end-of-life experiences for families and staff alike, according […]

HopeHealth CMO: Hospice Rules for ‘Unrelated Care’ Getting Stricter

Dr. Ed Martin began working in hospice in 1987 after hearing families talk about their experiences with those services. Today, he is chief medical officer of Rhode Island-based HopeHealth. The more than 50-year-old nonprofit organization also serves parts of Massachusetts. Martin recently spoke about the complicated issue of care that is deemed “unrelated” to a […]

‘Lockstep’ C-Suite Collaborations Crucial in Evolving Hospice Landscape

Trust and collaborative communication are essential to hospice executive teams seeking to weather a changing health care system. This is according to HopeHealth President and CEO Diana Franchitto and the company’s CMO Dr. Edward Martin. Franchitto and Martin have led the organization for roughly 15 years. The nonprofit health system provides home care, hospice, palliative […]

HopeHealth’s Dr. Leah McDonald Sees ‘System-Wide Embedding’ of Palliative Skills

A systematic overhaul of the nation’s health care education programs is needed to ensure that future clinicians are prepared to provide palliative and hospice care amid rising demand, according to Dr. Leah McDonald of HopeHealth. McDonald is a hospice and palliative care physician at HopeHealth. The nonprofit health system offers home health, hospice and palliative […]

How Regulation Could Shape the Future of Telehealth in Palliative Care

Palliative care providers are faced with uncertainties that abound over the regulatory future of telehealth as they continue to shape their programs. Some telehealth flexibilities that were temporarily implemented during the COVID public health emergency (PHE) are scheduled to sunset at the end of 2024. During the pandemic, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid […]

‘Untapped’ Social Determinants to Build Into Palliative Care Programs

Palliative care providers may have untapped areas of potential when it comes to improving access and quality through services that address social determinants of health. Though social determinants can take time and resources to build into palliative care programs, they come with a strong return on investment, according to Dr. Yaquta Patni, wound care and […]