Crossroads Hospice & Palliative Care is primed for continued success 
9/13/24; Business Wire - Crossroads Hospice & Palliative Care; by Lisa Simon; 9/13/24 
Crossroads Hospice & Palliative Care, the leading end-of-life care company, is affirming its commitment to growing its four Ohio locations in Cleveland, Northeast Ohio, Cincinnati and Dayton along with two others, one outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and one in Memphis, Tennessee. “We are committed to building our remaining locations and we have the depth of talent and proven standards for the highest quality care and the most time spent bedside, including attended deaths, compared with any other hospice. This is an opportunity for Crossroads to reach its highest potential.” That’s after selling five locations in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Georgia to Spartanburg, SC-headquartered Agape Care Group, a portfolio company of Ridgemont Equity Partners, earlier this week. Crossroads had been considering a strategic sale of some locations for a number of reasons. Now company leaders are viewing the future of the 29-year-old leader in hospice and palliative care with enthusiasm as they become a more streamlined company with a smaller geographic footprint. “The potential for innovation has never been higher,” said Crossroads CEO and Co-Founder Perry Farmer. “We are committed to building our remaining locations and we have the depth of talent and proven standards for the highest quality care and the most time spent bedside, including attended deaths, compared with any other hospice." ... COO and Co-Founder Clayton Farmer agreed while acknowledging how entrenched Crossroads is in the markets where it operates. “We want our valued referral partners in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee to know we are here to continue serving their patients and families and we will strive to continue to beat all national averages on key hospice industry metrics.” 

Destin welcomes its first inpatient hospice care center: Vitas suites at Destination Health and Rehabilitation 
South Florida Hospital News, Destin, FL; by cfelixcpa; 9/13/24 
Patients nearing the end of life who reside in Okaloosa and Walton counties now have access to inpatient hospice care at the VITAS Suites at Destination Health and Rehabilitation in Destin, Florida. This is the first and only inpatient unit for hospice patients in the two-county region. The nation’s leading provider of end-of-life care celebrated the grand opening of the new suites and is now accepting hospice-eligible patient referrals. ... “The new suites help VITAS further serve the greater community of Pensacola, filling a vital need for acute symptom management for end-of-life patients in the area,” said VITAS General Manager Chasity Tedford. 

Bayada, HomeWell leaders share strategies for recognizing and retaining office staff 
Home Health Care News; by Audrie Martin; 9/13/24 
Office staff have the highest client satisfaction scores among home health care provider employees. They also have the lowest administrative salaries. These salaries can impact job satisfaction and cause employees to seek employment elsewhere, according to the 2024 Activated Insights Benchmarking Report. Some organizations are turning to recognition to combat this trend. “Employee recognition is no longer a ‘nice to do,’” Michelle Cone, senior vice president of training and brand programs at HomeWell Care Services, told Home Health Care News. “Recognizing employees should be considered table stakes in this post-pandemic landscape. With a focus on employee retention, engagement, and overall satisfaction and its direct correlation to top-quality care, recognition to support retention and drive satisfaction is vital.” ... [Jeff Knapp, Chief People Officer of Bayada told HHCN,] “For office staff, excellence awards are one favorite. Employees are nominated and selected yearly and celebrated at our annual gathering. Categories include clinical leadership, client services leadership and enterprise support. We also give years of service awards to recognize employee loyalty and commitment.”

Here's what for-profit systems are watching as 2025 approaches 
Modern Healthcare; by Caroline Hudson; 9/9/24 
Large for-profit healthcare systems are investing in new facilities to meet patient demand and navigating changes in reimbursement rules to ensure those care sites remain stable. Executives from HCA Healthcare, Tenet Healthcare, Community Health Systems and Universal Health Services joined insurers, pharmaceutical companies and others in the spotlight ... at the annual Wells Fargo Healthcare Conference in Boston. ... Here are five takeaways from the for-profits' discussions.

1. Systems are changing how they invest capital. ...
2. Patient demand remains strong. ...
3. Medicaid supplemental payments are here to stay. ...
4. The future of exchange subsidies is uncertain. ...
5. Effects of the two-midnight rule change are limited. ...

Home care, hospice firms selected among top workplaces in senior care services
McKnight's Home Care; by Adam Healy; 9/13/24
Fortune magazine’s best workplaces list for 2024 included 15 aging services providers specializing in home-based care and hospice... [Hospice providers included] Butte Home Health and Hospice [CA, #4], Avow Hospice [FL, #10], Haven Hospice [FL, #13], and Chapters Health System [FL, #15].

YoloCares: Ten years in ... and we're just getting started
The Davis Enterprise [CA]; by Craig Dresang; 9/14/24
A longtime colleague who runs a large healthcare organization in the Washington, D.C., area recently asked me, “What is the most valuable thing you’ve fostered in your organization?” Needing no time to think, I immediately responded: Culture and stick-to-itiveness... I will share the guiding principles that helped shape the last ten years and will light the path for the next decade:

• Integrate high standards into an organization’s DNA
• Welcome24! None of us is as smart as all of us.
• Hire better than you
• Culture is everything

Craig Dresang is the CEO of YoloCares.

End-of-life care demand for dementia patients set to surge, study warns 
Jersey Evening Post, United Kingdom; by UK News; 9/16/24 
[United Kingdom] The number of people living with dementia who require end-of-life care is set to “substantially increase” in the coming years, according to a study. ... Researchers said: “Previous projections of the number of people with dementia who will have palliative care needs in England and Wales were based only on the number of people who died with dementia, and did not take into account people living with dementia. Thus, it is likely that the prevalence of palliative care needs among people with dementia in England and Wales has been considerably underestimated. Our analysis shows that even if dementia incidence declines between 2018 and 2040, the number of people living with dementia in England and Wales who have palliative care needs will increase substantially by 2040, reaching levels far greater than previous estimates based on mortality data.”
Editor's note: How do these projection processes in the UK compare or contrast with the USA data you use? For more immediate information about current resources:

• Alzheimer's Association: Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures
• Alzheimer's Association: Mapping a Better Future for Dementia Care
• Alzheimer's Association: Support for People Living With Dementia
• U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services: Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience (GUIDE) Model

Editor's note: Pair this today's article, The persistent stigma attached to dementia encourages denial. 

The 9 college majors that lead to the most fulfilling careers ... [Music therapy]
NBC 7 San Diego, CA; by Kamaron McNair; 9/14/24 
If you want your degree to help you land a fulfilling job, consider studying music therapy. The medical and therapeutic fields are among the college majors helping graduates get jobs that make the world a better place, according to graduates surveyed in a recent Payscale report.
24/7 San Diego news stream: Watch NBC 7 free wherever you are 
Alumni with bachelor's degrees in music therapy are most likely to do this kind of fulfilling work, with 95% of degree-holders saying their work makes the world a better place, Payscale finds. Music therapy programs cover coursework in music, music therapy, science and psychology, according to the American Music Therapy Association. ... Music therapists may work in traditional settings, offering services to clients working through physical disabilities or mental health issues. People in hospice care, substance abuse programs and cancer treatment centers have also benefited from music therapist visits, according to the AMTA.
Editor's note: Click here for facts and descriptions about "Music Therapy in Hospice Care," by the American Music Therapy Association (AMTA). To recruit a certified music therapist for hospice (or other setting), visit AMTA's Job Hotline.  

Walgreens to pay $107M fine for prescription billing fraud claims
Modern Healthcare; by Katherine Davis; 9/13/24
Walgreens Boots Alliance has agreed to pay a $106.8 million fine to the U.S. Department of Justice to settle allegations that it billed government healthcare programs for prescriptions never dispensed.

CMS submits 75,000 pages to federal court to justify nursing home staffing mandate 
McKnights Long-Term Care News; by Kimberly Marselas; 9/15/24 
The Department of Health and Human Services filed more than 75,000 pages of rule-making records with a federal court Friday, beginning its formal defense of its controversial nursing home staffing mandate. The submission of the administrative record is the first significant advance in the case since the American Health Care Association brought its challenge to the minimum staffing standard in late May. The Texas Health Care Association, three Texas providers and LeadingAge are also part of the case. In another development, District Court for the Northern District of Texas Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk on Sept. 10 agreed to fold in a separate federal challenge against the staffing mandate filed by the state of Texas. He noted that the two cases “share common questions of law or fact, consist of similar parties, the same claims, and [have] the same relief sought.”

Private equity acquisition of physician practices — Looking for ethical guidance from professional societies
JAMA Network; by Peter A. Ubel; 9/13/24
In 2012, private equity firms purchased approximately 75 physician-owned practices; by 2021, that number had risen to almost 500. Most commonly, firms have sought high-paid subspecialty practices. For example, dermatologists make up approximately 1% of physicians in the US, whereas dermatology practices account for 15% of private equity acquisitions. Private equity firms can offer valuable administrative support to clinical practices. Some firms offer expertise to help practices respond to rapidly changing regulatory and reimbursement environments. Firms also provide financial rewards to clinicians who have often spent decades building successful practices. However, private equity acquisitions can also lead to ethically troubling consequences. For example, to maximize the return on their investments, private equity firms sometimes pressure clinicians to see more patients, perform more procedures on those patients, and upsell patients on products not reimbursed by insurance, such as acne creams stocked in dermatology offices. In addition, after being acquired by firms, medical practices often raise medical prices, including an increase in out-of-network billing and surprise bills. These price increases harm patients by increasing their out-of-pocket expenses and, potentially, reducing their ability to pay for care, thus contributing to financial nonadherence and medical debt... In short, some professional societies offer guidance on how to promote members’ interests when selling to private equity, even reminding them to factor the value of their real estate into the sale price, but they offer scant information on the ethical tradeoffs created by such sales.

• First, professional societies should convene panels of experts from within and outside their specialties to review the ethical and economic effects of private equity (and other profit-maximizing entities) on patients.
• Second, professional societies should develop written materials that can be easily accessed by members to explain in clear and direct terms that the decision whether to sell one’s practice is not just a matter of economics or of professional quality of life but is also an ethical choice and one that must be consistent with professional duties to current and future patients.
• Third, professional societies should develop ethics guidelines to provide members with practical moral advice.

Kaiser Permanente to exit skilled nursing business 
Modern Healthcare; by Diane Eastabrrok; 9/11/24 
Kaiser Permanente is getting out of the nursing home business, closing its lone skilled nursing facility, a spokesperson confirmed in an email Wednesday. The nonprofit health system is shutting down the 176-bed nursing home in San Leandro, California in November, which will displace approximately 250 workers, the spokesperson said. He added that staff are working to transition patients either to their homes or to other skilled nursing facilities in the area.

As families searched, a Texas medical school cut up their loved ones 
NBC News, Dallas, TX; by Mike Hixenbaugh, John Schuppe, Susan Carroll, Catherine Allen, Bryan Gallion, Liz Kreutz and Nigel Chiwaya; 9/16/24 
... In the name of scientific advancement, clinical education and fiscal expediency, the bodies of the destitute in the Dallas-Fort Worth region have been routinely collected from hospital beds, nursing homes and homeless encampments and used for training or research without their consent — and often without the approval of any survivors, an NBC News investigation found. ... For months as NBC News reported this article, Health Science Center officials defended their practices, arguing that using unclaimed bodies was essential for training future doctors. But on Friday, after reporters shared detailed findings of this investigation, the center announced it was immediately suspending its body donation program and firing the officials who led it. The center said it was also hiring a consulting firm to investigate the program’s operations.

The patient care experience on full display 
Modern Healthcare; by Mary Ellen Podmolik; 9/13/24 
Art exhibits can promote a visceral reaction. The one that just opened along a hallway of windows on Thomas Jefferson University’s health sciences campus certainly does just that. The installation includes five hospital beds, life-sized mannequins inside large pill bottles, personal possessions and deeply personal quotes from five unnamed people who’ve gone through life-threatening trauma — a miscarriage, a pulmonary embolism, a wait for a kidney transplant, a case of undiagnosed paralysis and cancer. The Philadelphia artist behind the exhibit, Pepón Osorio, is the cancer patient. “Convalescence” is a complex and compelling exhibit of patient pain, reliance on drugs and inequitable care — part of the patient experience that can get lost in the daily tussle between providers and payers. “It is a critique of the healthcare system,” Megan Voeller, director of health humanities at the university, told me. 
Editor's note: Click on the title's link to view photos of this art exhibit.

The persistent stigma attached to dementia encourages denial 
InForum; by Carol Bradley Bursack; 9/14/24 
Dear Carol: ... At age 70, I was diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Theoretically, that diagnosis means that I have a few more memory glitches than normal for my age. A percentage of people with MCI will develop Alzheimer’s disease, but not all. Yet, some family members treat me like I shouldn’t make decisions beyond what I want for dinner. ...
Dear Al: The stigma attached to mental illness, cognitive decline, and even aging, illustrates widespread ignorance of facts. The more people like you speak up the better the future will be for others. ... For now, work on educating your family about MCI.  ... Here's a start: 

• From the National Institute on Aging:  What Is Mild Cognitive Impairment?
• From The Alzheimer’s Foundation of America: Is it Dementia or Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI)?  
• From Better Health While Aging on YouTube: How to Treat Mild Cognitive Impairment

Editor's note: As hospice and palliative care leaders, your families, friends and communities look to you for expertise in conditions associated with end-of-life care, i.e., dementia. While you should know the characteristics and needs for persons, families, and professionals dealing with advanced dementia, you need to be aware of distinctions with earlier stages of MCI. Pair this with another article in today's newsletter, End-of-life care demand for dementia patients set to surge, study warns.

You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.