In case you missed it, Hospice News has launched a new specialty publication for palliative care professionals. You can subscribe to Palliative Care News here: Subscribe today! Recent efforts to increase transparency within Medicare Advantage may impact hospice reimbursement. The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released a Request for Information (RFI) on ways […]
Utilization of continuous home care has dropped precipitously during the past decade, with labor pressures, regulatory scrutiny and billing challenges as contributing factors. Continuous home care (CHC) represented 0.9% of hospice care days during 2022, according to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO). This is down from 1.8% in 2013. The widespread labor […]
When deprescribing medications for hospice patients, providers have to navigate a complex web of factors. But according to some clinicians, the prospect of cost savings often takes precedence over clinical outcomes. Medication costs are among hospices’ biggest expenses, and deprescribing some medications deemed “curative” or “unrelated” to the patient’s terminal diagnosis is a standard practice. […]
A new report is casting doubt on the heightened regulatory efforts seeking to curb fraud, waste and abuse from hospice agencies in select states. The questionable success of those oversight efforts is best reflected in the fraud hotbed of California, which continues to see a swarm of new hospices emerging and receiving federal funding, despite […]
National hospice utilization rates have fallen since 2020, though the total number of patients served remains consistent. About 47.3% of all Medicare decedents received one day or more of hospice care and were enrolled in hospice at the time of death during calendar year 2021, the most recent year for which data are available, according […]
Hospice providers, industry groups and other stakeholders recently penned a letter urging Congress to improve payment infrastructures that would increase access to end-of-life care among rural populations. The letter highlighted the unique challenges that rural and frontier hospice and palliative care providers face, and how strengthened financial support could lead to sustainable access and better […]
Some hospice providers have hit roadblocks when it comes to navigating needs determination methodologies certificate of need (CON) laws in certain states, citing outdated processes for assessing underserved populations. Determining an unmet need for hospice can be a challenging feat that includes many variables beyond the scope of some current CON policies in place, according […]
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) has voted to recommend a freeze on hospice payment increases starting in 2025. However, the commission pulled back on prior calls for cuts to the aggregate payment cap. While MedPAC cannot implement policy or payment rate changes, it does make annual recommendations to Congress and the U.S. Centers for […]
As auditing activity by regulators continues to spike, hospices need to know how to conduct internal investigations to identify any potential improper payments. Audits by Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) have proliferated during the past two years, including Targeted Probe and Educate (TPE) audits, as well as those by Unified Program Integrity Contractors (UPIC), Supplemental Medical […]
Two of the nation’s largest hospice and home-based care industry organizations are merging and have announced a combined board that will guide the transition. The National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) and the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) floated the possibility of a combination in March in light of their existing, […]
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