Blue Ridge Hospice Testing Gamified Bereavement Care Model

Blue Ridge Hospice has developed a unique, gamified approach to bereavement care that the agency will test in partnership with seven other providers across the country. The program, Adventures in Grief, involves a Dungeons and Dragons-style tabletop role playing game module designed to provide therapeutic support to bereaved adolescents and young adults. The program aims […]

Hospice of the Chesapeake Unveils New Cardiac Care Program

Hospice of the Chesapeake has launched a new disease-specific hospice program designed to better support patients with cardiac conditions. The Maryland-based provider developed its new Advanced Cardiac Care Program in collaboration with the American Heart Association (AHA) and the National Partnership for Healthcare and Hospice Innovation (NPHI). “By offering heart disease patients the right educational […]

How to Diversify Services Within the Medicare Hospice Benefit

Hospices nationwide have been diversifying their services to include palliative care, PACE, home-based primary care and a host of other business lines. However, some organizations have found success with disease-specific programs reimbursed through the Medicare Hospice Benefit. A growing number of operators have developed programs tailored to patients with specific diagnoses, providing specialized care tailored […]

Top Hospice Trends to Watch in 2025

Hospice leaders will need to keep their eyes on five key trends in the new year when it comes to compliance, business operations and finance. Coupled with these trends is rising utilization. Hospice utilization reached 51.7% among Medicare decedents in 2023, up more than two percentage points from the prior year, according to recent data […]

How Hospice of the Chesapeake Boosted CAHPS Response Rates, Scores

Maryland-based Hospice of the Chesapeake has increased its return rates for Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) surveys through a performance improvement project. CAHPS surveys are among the most important sources of hospice quality data. The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) requires that hospices send the survey to families following […]

Hospice of the Chesapeake Launches New Dementia Program Amid ‘Urgent, Significant’ Need

Hospice of the Chesapeake has unfurled a new dementia care program aimed at providing improved emotional, educational and practical support for patients and their caregivers as their conditions progress. Demographic trends were among the key factors that drove the program forward, said Monica Escalante, chief strategy and information officer at Hospice of the Chesapeake. The […]

Hospice Executives Laser-Focused on Regulation, See Change on Horizon

Today’s hospice executives are entering the field with change in mind for improved quality. But concerns have mounted around sustainable growth strategies that will keep pace with rising demand amid myriad challenges in end-of-life care delivery. Hospice News spoke with c-suite executives who have recently stepped into their roles to learn more about what led […]

How Hospice of the Chesapeake Is Innovating Bereavement Care, Family Support

Maryland-based Hospice of the Chesapeake has been pursuing innovation in its bereavement and caregiver support programs. The nonprofit hospice and palliative care provider offers grief care to its entire community regardless of whether a family member was one of their patients. Out-of-pocket payments for those services are on a sliding scale. To expand its reach, […]

Hospices’ Compliance Outlook a ‘Balancing Act’

The future outlook of hospice compliance is a mixed bag of uncertainty as program integrity oversight heats up alongside evolutions in telehealth regulation. Hospices today are facing one of the most challenging regulatory environments that the industry has seen, according to Pamela Duncan Owens, chief compliance officer of Agape Care. A portfolio company of Ridgemont […]

Anatomy of Hospice Grief Camps for Children

Training staff and volunteers to provide developmentally-appropriate grief support is among the key parts of operating summer camp programs for children and adolescents suffering a recent loss. Whether rolling out summer grief camps for the first time or innovating these programs throughout the course of several decades, hospices need a firm grasp around the different […]