NHPCO RELEASES “HOSPICE PROGRAM INTEGRITY INITIATIVES” NHPCO released integrity guideline for hospice care. The release is part of their role in providing assistance to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG), and Congress in “helping to stop fraud and abuse before it occurs and embracing any new […]
ALTERNATIVE PAYMENT MODELS AND THE SERIOUSLY ILL; RESEARCH AND TRAINING PREPARE PHYSICIANS TO GIVE CULTURALLY TARGETED CARE
ARTICLE ADDRESSES CALIFORNIA HOSPICE CONCERNS AND INVESTIGATIONS On 8/28, the Sacramento Bee published “California hospices face lax oversight and few rules. The sick and dying pay the price.” The story begins by sharing the experience of one hospice patient as seen through the eyes of her daughter, Tracy Sellers. Within a day of her […]
SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS AND MORE EDUCATION NEEDED TO BEST SUPPORT LGBTQ PATIENTS AT END OF LIFE Though an LGBTQ individual has more or less the same needs as a heterosexual or cisgender person at the end of their lives, they often receive subpar care. This can be true across all settings: a hospital, a nursing […]
NEW RECOMMENDATIONS FOR HOW POLICY LEADERS CAN IMPROVE PALLIATIVE CARE IN THEIR STATES
Though palliative care treatment effectively improves both quality of life and quality of care for patients, and at a lower cost than traditional care, the numbers for patients receiving palliative care is still low. In fact, according to an article in Health Affairs, “Fewer than 5 percent of individuals who could benefit from palliative care receive it.” “States, which spend more than 50 percent of their Medicaid budgets on 5 percent of beneficiaries with complex conditions, are increasingly interested in palliative care and the value it brings to systems that support individuals with serious illnesses.”
MANY FACTORS CAN COMPLICATE A PATIENT’S DECISION TO PURSUE LATE-STAGE CANCER INTERVENTIONS
EXPERTS SHARE POINTS OF “NETIQUETTE” FOR FACING DEATH AND GRIEVING ONLINE
Two new hospice training videos are available on the CMS website. The courses, which are designed to be taken at any participant’s pace, offer detailed training on the Hospice Quality Reporting System (HQRP).
On July 31, CMS issued the final rule (CMS-1714-F) on the hospice wage index. The rule, says a CMS announcement, “demonstrates continued commitment to strengthening Medicare by better aligning the hospice payment rates with the costs of providing care and increasing transparency so patients can make more informed choices.”
BJ MILLER WRITES “WHAT A DOCTOR WISHES PATIENTS KNEW ABOUT THE END” “As a hospice and palliative medicine physician, my job is to help reduce suffering. At the end of life, that job becomes especially intense when time is short, when machines and data seem to be taking over, and so many intense emotions […]
Key recommendations include the following. CMS should strengthen surveys of hospice. Medicare should ask Congress for more authority to “go after” poor performing hospices. Medicare should also, say the studies, “strengthen the state survey process to focus on problem hospices.” Further, payment to hospices should be tied to quality of care provided instead of paying a flat daily rate.
SERVICE DIVERSIFICATION IS OF UTMOST IMPORTANCE IN FACE OF EVOLVING HOSPICE CARE DEMANDS The hospice industry is changing, and hospices must make smart changes to their business models in response, Hospice News reports in their white paper report “Top Strategies For Diversifying Hospice Services.” Important industry shifts that should be taken into account include […]
GUIDELINES SHOW THAT PALLIATIVE CARE CAN IMPROVE ALL MEDICAL CARE The level of day-to-day team-based support that a patient receives under hospice and palliative care isn’t often seen in other forms of medical care. Martha L. Twaddle, MD, an internist and palliative care specialist, thinks this needs to change. For that reason, she worked […]
TOOL HELPS PATIENTS EXPRESS HOW MUCH INFORMATION THEY WISH TO KNOW ABOUT THEIR PROGNOSIS BJ Miller is a hospice and palliative medicine physician at University of California, San Francisco. Shoshana Berger is author of an upcoming book “A Beginner’s Guide to the End: Practical Advice for Living Life and Facing Death.” Together, they wrote […]
AUTHORS IDENTIFY FOUR PSYCHIATRY COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUES THAT ENHANCE PALLIATIVE CARE
PALLIATIVE CARE WORKER CRISIS IS LOOMING Alarm bells are sounding about the looming shortage of palliative care physicians to meet increasing demand. “Unless new policies are adopted, a steady decline in the number of palliative care physicians is expected for the next 14 years,” reports Health Leaders. This concern was set off most recently by […]
HOSPICES CAN DO BETTER USING MEDICARE INTENSIVE ADD ON “Hospice providers are not taking advantage of the Medicare Service Intensity Add-On (SIA) program, despite the program’s potential to drive quality improvement and increase revenues,” writes Jim Parker for Hospice News. The CMS introduced the SIA in 2016, which allows hospices to bill an additional […]
BRANDT AND AQUAVIVA HONORED AS “PALLIAVIVE CARE POWER COUPLE” Kim Aquaviva and Kathy Brandt are well known in the world of hospice and palliative care. The couple has been together for 18 years. Acquaviva is a professor of nursing, and author of a book on inclusive care for LGBTQ persons. Brandt is a leader in […]
SHOULD ‘DNR’ BE REPLACE THE TERM ‘NO CPR’?
“The term ‘do not resuscitate’ should be laid to rest,” argue Amber Barnato and Maxwell Vergo in an opinion piece published in The Hill. Barnato and Vergo are health care educators who say the term DNR is rife with misunderstandings for patients, families, and health-care providers alike, and they lay out a case to update the language around end-of-life wishes.
HOSPICE DATA IMPACTING POLICY, CARE, AND PATIENT EXPERIENCE With more data sets and tools available, both hospice policy decisions and care operations increasingly rely on the data findings. Hospice News released a whitepaper titled “How Data is Driving Hospice Decisions.” The 10-page document focuses on how providers are using data to make care-related decisions […]