Who gets to access a “good death"? 
Adelphi University, New York; by Zainab Toteh Osakew and Jennifer McIntosh; 10/23/24
Socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods have fewer home hospice agencies, study shows. ... “We know that poorer neighborhoods have continued to lag behind in utilization of hospice care. For decades, scientists have attributed it to cultural values or preferences about care,” said Zainab Toteh Osakwe, PhD, associate professor in the Adelphi University College of Nursing and Public Health and an expert in home healthcare. ... Dr. Osakwe partnered with a geospatial analyst at the University of North Dakota to uncover patterns in the locations of hospice offices. Drawing on information made publicly available by [CMS] ... , they culled data related to 3,447 hospice providers and 4,584 Medicare-certified hospices nationwide. Next, they geocoded hospice agency addresses to the social vulnerability index (SVI), a measure developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that geographically ranks at-risk communities. ... Dr. Osakwe and her team found that hospice agency offices were far more likely to be clustered in neighborhoods with greater socioeconomic advantage. Predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhoods also contained significantly fewer hospice agency offices. While the results align with prior studies on hospice supply and community-level wealth, theirs is one of the first to investigate hospice agency availability by neighborhood.
Editor's note: Addressing the lack of healthcare presence in a key "at-risk" community it serves, Norton Healthcare in Louisville, KY opens its first hospital in Louisville's West End in more than 150 years.

Retiring NAHC President Bill Dombi exhorts advocates to keep fighting 
HomeCare; 10/22/24 
The departing leader shares his vision for the future of home health & hospice at his final conference. Bill Dombi met his first bully in kindergarten. It only took a day for him to fight back, leaving the bully with a bloody nose and Dombi punished in a corner, the retiring president emeritus of the National Association for Homecare and Hospice (NAHC) said as he bid farewell on the last day of the organization’s annual conference in Tampa, Florida. "I was smiling the entire time—and learning that’s not the way to do it," Dombi told the crowd during his last moments on the convention stage. "You’ve got to go to law school instead." Dombi is retiring at the end of the year and was celebrated throughout this year's event, which was launched under the NAHC title, but actually took place as the National Alliance for Care at Home Home Care and Hospice Conference and Expo after NAHC and the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) merged in July. [Click on the title's link to continue reading.]

What the best leadership teams do right 
Harvard Business Review; by Ron Carucci, Mindy Millward, and Eric Hansen; 10/22/24 
Given the unique responsibilities of executive teams, it would seem obvious that they require a specialized set of skills and approaches to be effective. And yet few have cracked the code on building and sustaining such effectiveness. There are three critical, highly interdependent roles they must play to have lasting impact on the company’s performance, culture, and ability to adapt. Executive teams often perform one or two of these reasonably well but fall short in integrating all three. The good news is that, with persistent effort, executive teams willing to put in the work can learn to play all three of these roles — setting themselves apart from the many willing to settle for much less.

• They set competitive direction and secure resources. ...
• They shape healthy culture by building relationships and modeling values. ...
• They establish disciplined governance to synchronize performance. ...

Funding approved for homeless hospice program 
SacCountyNews, Sacramento, CA; by Janna Haynes; 10/22/24 
The Board approved, at its Oct. 22nd meeting, up to $1,137,788 in funding to complete construction on Joshua House, a facility that provides end-of-life comfort care for homeless individuals with terminal illnesses, after being discharged from an acute care hospital. Joshua’s House specifically provides a location for homeless patients to receive home-like hospice services when they, by definition, do not have a home to receive such care and may otherwise be unsheltered at the time of passing. Joshua’s House provides shelter, food, clothing and certain volunteer comfort services. In addition, YoloCares will provide licensed expert/specialized end-of-life care for individuals and families facing a life-limiting illness. Yolo Cares has provided high-quality hospice care across the six-county region for nearly 50 years. YoloCares also recently became an enhanced Care Management and Community Supports provider through CalAIM.

Senator Lorraine R. Inouye announces release of $200,000 for Hospice of Hilo Improvements 
Hawai'i State Senate; 10/22/24
Senator Lorraine R. Inouye (District 1 – Hilo, Paukaʻa, Papaikou, Pepeʻekeo) is pleased to announce that Governor Josh Green has released $200,000 in capital improvement project Grant-in-Aid funds for the Hospice of Hilo. ... “This funding will significantly improve the facilities and services at Hospice of Hilo, ensuring they can continue to provide critical care to our community,” said Senator Lorraine R. Inouye. “Supporting organizations like Hospice of Hilo helps build a stronger, more compassionate future for Hawaiʻi ..."

SSM Health at Home joins Wisconsin Hospice & Palliative Care Collaborative 
Hospice News; by Jim Parker; 10/22/24 
The home health and hospice provider SSM Health at Home has joined the Wisconsin Hospice & Palliative Care Collaborative (WHPCC). SSM Health at Home is part of the SSM Health System. Headquartered in Missouri, the system also services patients in Illinois, Wisconsin and Oklahoma. WHPCC was incorporated as a 501c3 organization in 2021. The collaborative includes members Rainbow Hospice Care, Unity Hospice, Adoray Home Health & Hospice, Hospice Alliance and Sharon S. Richardson Community Hospice. Their combined geographic footprint covers 80% of the state.

Customizing a palliative program to patient, payer priorities 
Hospice News; by Jim Parker; 10/23/24 
While some palliative care programs mirror the hospice model, more operators are working to tailor their services to patients’ specific needs, with varying intensity. This is increasingly important as payment shifts towards value-based payment models in which demonstrating cost savings is crucial to success. Providers need to demonstrate strong performance on quality scores as well as a track record of effectively preventing avoidable hospitalizations, readmissions and emergency department visits. This is particularly the case when negotiating contracts with Medicare Advantage plans, Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) and other value-based payment arrangements, Sue Lynn Schramm, a partner of the hospice and palliative care consulting company Confidis, LLC, said in a presentation at the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization Annual Leadership Conference. [Click on the title's link to continue reading.]

Everyday moments of grace: Hospice patient’s art brings joy 
PeaceHealth; 10/22/24 
A hospice patient’s room becomes an art studio to create expressions of her life she loves to share with others. A stay at hospice did not stop Sherry McCalden from doing what she loves - creating art and sharing it with others. ... McCalden is a lifelong artist. Her love of painting started in high school. She's been creating works of art ever since. From landscapes to animals to flowers, she paints what inspires her and what she loves. Not much stops her from painting, including Parkinson's disease. For a few months, she was at the PeaceHealth Richard Nau Hospice House in Longview, Washington before her health stabilized and she was relocated to another facility. She transformed her room at Hospice House into an art studio filled with her paintings. A visit brought joy to both visitors and staff.

Busting palliative care misconceptions in cancer care 
Cure; by Alex Biese; 10/22/24 
Palliative care can serve a crucial function for patients living with serious illnesses such as cancer, as an expert explained in an interview with CURE®. “Palliative care is sub-specialized health care for patients living with serious illness, where we're really focused on alleviating the symptoms and the stress associated with illness, and our goal is to improve quality of life for patients and their families,” said Dr. Cari Low of the University of Utah Huntsman Cancer Institute. ... However, some misconceptions persist regarding palliative care — most prominently that it is synonymous with hospice care. ... "We [i.e., palliative care] follow patients from the time of diagnosis through their curative cancer treatment and throughout their journey and into survivorship. ... Hospice is really focused on end-of-life care and comfort when cancer treatments no longer make sense. So, I really think of palliative care as this great big umbrella of support throughout the entire journey, where hospice is just a tiny piece of that umbrella.”

Palliative care pharmacist discusses how building relationships with patients leads to rewarding career 
Drug Topics - Voice of the Pharmacist; by Killian Meara; 10/22/24 
A discussion with Madison Irwin, PharmD, BCPS, clinical pharmacist specialist in palliative care at University of Michigan Health and clinical assistant professor at the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy. ... Irwin currently works as a clinical pharmacist specialist in palliative care in both inpatient and outpatient settings. She supports a palliative care consult team and outpatient palliative care clinics by seeing patients who are transitioning out of the hospital or patients who have more complex medication management needs. Although there are plenty of challenges that she faces in her practice, Irwin said that really getting to know patients through her work is extremely rewarding. ... In a conversation with Drug Topics, Irwin discussed how her career has unfolded, a program that she worked on that exemplifies the value of pharmacists in patient care, opportunities out there for pharmacists to expand their role, and how high rates of chronic pain will impact the pharmacy profession in the coming years.

New hospice special focus program
American Health Association / National Center for Assisted Living; by Amy Miller; 10/22/23 
​​As required under the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, CMS has established a hospice special focus program (SFP) in the Calendar Year (CY) 2024 Home Health Prospective Payment System (HH PPS) final rule (88 FR 77676). Through increased regulatory oversight and enforcement of the selected poor performing hospice programs, the SFP will address issues that could place hospice beneficiaries at risk of receiving poor quality of care. The hospice SFP is like the current Special Focus Facility (SFF) program in place for nursing homes. As many nursing homes refer residents to hospice programs and may receive questions from residents or their families, it will be important to keep informed if there are noted quality of care issues. 

What hospices need to know about whistleblower lawsuits 
Hospice News; by Holly Vossel; 10/22/24 
Hospices need to understand the range of risks involved in qui tam cases and how best to navigate whistleblower concerns amid an evolving regulatory landscape. Qui tam actions occur when a whistleblower, called a “relator” by the courts, files a False Claims Act suit on behalf of the government. The relator has the potential to receive a portion of any funds recovered by the government via the lawsuit, with amounts typically ranging from 15% to 25%. A federal judge recently found the qui tam clause unconstitutional, ruling that the relator’s role in sparking enforcement actions effectively makes them an executive branch officer appointed without due process.

Duke Health CFOs' plan to reach 1 in 4 North Carolinians 
Becker's Hospital CFO Report; by Madeline Ashley; 10/21/24 
Since Lisa Goodlett was named senior vice president, CFO and treasurer of Durham, N.C.-based Duke University Health System in March, one of the health system's main goals has been to increase access to the health system from 8% of North Carolina's population to more than 25%. To achieve this, the health system is leveraging technology and looking at expanding partnerships to ensure services are more widely available. ... As Duke Health continues to push expanded care access, the health system has also been in contract negotiations with UnitedHealthcare for the last few weeks regarding 172,000 of its patients.  ... If the parties cannot come to an agreement by Nov. 1, Duke Health's hospitals, facilities and physicians would be out of network for employer-sponsored commercial plans, including UMR and Medicare Advantage plans, including a group retiree and dual special-needs plans.

Eight important financial questions to ask your aging parents 
LifeHacker; by Emily Long; 10/23/24
Money conversations can be uncomfortable, but they are also essential. ... When you start asking financial questions of your parents, remember that you don't need specifics, such as dollar amounts or who is inheriting what. The purpose of these discussions is to ensure your parents' wishes are backed by a plan and to understand whether (and how) they want or need your support as they age. Their plan may also affect you directly if you have power of attorney, help with paying bills, or are expected to be a caregiver in the future.

• What are their wishes for their money? ...
• Do they have an estate plan? ...
• What are their assets (and how are they titled)? ...
• How are they funding retirement? ...
• Have they designate a power of attorney? ...
• Do they have updated beneficiaries? ...
• How will care be provided and paid for? ...
• How can important information be accessed if needed? ...

[And,] How to have financial conversations with your parents ...

You know you're an adult when you get excited to just go home. ~ Unknown