Hospice Fraud Casts Lengthening Shadow Over Future of Industry

Fraudulent operators in the hospice space have misspent millions of Medicare dollars in recent years. This problem has become so severe that it has become one of the defining issues facing the hospice industry, with providers and other industry stakeholders expressing concern about significant impacts to future payment, access, sustainability and utilization.  This is the […]

Psychological Trauma Can Worsen Symptom Burden at End-of-Life

Recent research has found that traumatic experiences can lead to increased pain and symptom burden at the end of life, along with a greater likelihood of emotional suffering and isolation. Collective trauma experiences have been associated with higher instances of pain and dyspnea among more than half of seniors nationwide, a recent study found, published […]

The High Costs of Limited Hospice Access for Dementia Patients 

Limiting hospice access for dementia patients is likely to increase overall health care costs at the end of life, according to recent research. During the past decade, Medicare beneficiaries with dementia who utilized hospice had lower overall health care costs than those who did not, according to the Health Affairs study. The findings provide a […]

Filament Health, Psyence Group Partner to Advance Psychedelic Palliative Medicine

The international biotechnology company Psyence Group has entered into a licensing agreement with Filament Heath Corp. to support development of palliative care drugs derived from natural psilocybin. The agreement gives Psyence an exclusive license to use Filament’s botanical drug candidate PEX010 in clinical trials, initially in the United Kingdom. Both companies are publicly traded on […]

Gaps in Hospice, Palliative Care Clinical Training Impede Provider Recruitment

A lack of nursing and medical education in hospice and palliative care creates an additional obstacle for providers trying to push back against industry-wide labor shortages. Not only are hospices competing with other health care sectors for new hires, but the vast majority of clinicians entering the workforce are unprepared to provide those services. Most […]

Providers Seek Palliative Care Quality Measures to Demonstrate Value

The lack of standardized quality measures for palliative care complicates efforts to expand access to those services. This means community-based palliative care providers have limited ways to benchmark their performance and further demonstrate their value. The growing need for this type of care has led providers and industry groups to pump up the volume of […]