Sustaining Standalone Palliative Care Companies

Health care’s hunt for treatment and cure can leave comfort overlooked. But if it is to meet growing demand for high quality palliative care, the United States needs interdisciplinary teams that can attend to patients’ complex clinical, social and emotional needs. Challenge enough, but these teams must also choreograph their work within Medicare’s fee-for-service coding […]

Integrating Social Determinants Into Palliative Care

Strong staff education and reimbursement are among the keys to successfully integrating social determinants of health within a palliative care program. Screening tools developed by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) include five areas of social determinants of health: food and housing insecurity, transportation needs, utility difficulties and interpersonal safety. Supplemental domains […]

6 Hospice, Palliative Care Organizations Name New Executives

Hospice providers across the country have appointed new leadership, including local, regional and national companies. BrightSpring Names New CFO BrightSpring Health Services (Nasdaq: BTSG) has promoted Jennifer Phipps to CFO. She succeeded Jim Mattingly, effective March 4. Phipps has been with BrightSpring for eight years, most recently serving as chief accounting officer and principal accounting […]

Palliative Care Providers Get Creative to Boost Utilization

While a critical service for patients with serious illnesses, palliative care is vastly underutilized nationwide. Providers have gotten creative in their efforts to improve utilization, with some incorporating pets into nursing visits with patients. Lacking public awareness and patient misconceptions are among the leading causes for lagging palliative care utilization. Many patients and families don’t […]

COVID-19 Public Emergency to Continue, Hospices in the Dark on Regulatory Future

Set to expire later this month, the public health emergency (PHE) is likely to continue, along with regulatory waivers that expanded telehealth utilization and streamlined other health care processes. As they await word, providers are growing increasingly concerned about the future of those flexibilities, and the potential financial and operational impacts if they go away […]

Seeking the Formula for Sustainable Palliative Care

The United States lacks a robust reimbursement system for palliative care. While stakeholders work toward change, providers are developing innovative ways to work with what they have to bring this care to patients in need. Historically, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has reimbursed palliative care through a fee-for-service model that only […]

Vynca Lands $30 Million to Build Out Palliative Care Platform

Investors have paid more and more attention to end-of-life care companies and advanced care businesses since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The latest example of this trend played out on Monday, with Palo Alto, California-based Vynca announcing it had raised another $30 million in growth capital. The investment was led by Questa Capital with […]

Obstacles Persist for Rural Patients to Access Hospice

Demand for hospice and palliative care is rising in rural areas as they are for the rest of the country, but patients in those regions often lack access to care. Hospices trying to reach them often contend with lower patient volume and long travel times between home visits. While recent legislative action could make a […]

Hospices Mobilize to Better Serve Mentally Ill Patients

Access and quality of hospice care for patients with serious mental illness are rising concerns among providers. Hospices are increasingly recognizing the need to better understand the unique challenges these patients face as they reach the end of life, with cries for further research growing louder. Education and awareness around mental health will be key […]