Literature Review



Advance care planning reaches underserved across U.S. recruitment continues for National Institutes of Health (NIH) Research

02/11/24 at 03:20 AM

Advance care planning reaches underserved across U.S. recruitment continues for National Institutes of Health (NIH) ResearchHospice Foundation of America; 1/18/24Community outreach leaders and liaisons are urged to apply to serve as hosts for the Project Talk Trial, a national, 5-year research project funded by National Institutes of Health that seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of advance care planning conversations and whether those discussions result in advance care planning actions. ... The project is specifically focused on underserved communities of people who historically have the poorest access to healthcare services and the lowest engagement in advance care planning, which include racial and ethnic minorities, low-income individuals, and rural populations.

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Why hospice utilization rates have fallen

02/11/24 at 03:15 AM

Why hospice utilization rates have fallenHospice News, by Jim Parker; 1/25/24National hospice utilization rates have fallen since 2020, though the total number of patients served remains consistent. ... Mathematically, the percentage declined in part because of continually changing demographics.Publisher's note: This article quotes a decline in Medicare hospice utilization rates through 2021, which is true. However, we are seeing a rebound / increase in 2022 and 2023 information.

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Hospice providers must be better regulated

02/11/24 at 03:10 AM

Hospice providers must be better regulatedScientific American, 2/1/24 (updated from last week's publication)Too many hospice providers in the U.S. are run by private equity and for-profit corporations. A lack of regulation allows them to provide abysmal end-of-life care.

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Hospice Benefit Policy Manual updates related to the addition of Marriage and Family Therapists or Mental Health Counselors to the Hospice Interdisciplinary Team

02/11/24 at 03:05 AM

Hospice Benefit Policy Manual updates related to the addition of Marriage and Family Therapists or Mental Health Counselors to the Hospice Interdisciplinary TeamCMS; 1/22/24Change Request 13437 (PDF) purpose is to manualize changes to the hospice interdisciplinary group (IDG) to include Marriage and Family Therapists (MFTs) or Mental Health Counselors (MHCs). Publisher's note: Also see CMS Hospice Open Door Forum (November 29, 2023) Q&A.

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Sunday Newsletters

02/11/24 at 03:00 AM

Sunday NewslettersTop read stories of the last week (in order) is the focus of Sunday newsletters - enjoy!

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Today's Encouragement - from Lamar Jackson

02/11/24 at 03:00 AM

For my teammates, this is an award for all of us. - Lamar Jackson

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Attending to the moral meaning of pain

02/10/24 at 03:45 AM

Attending to the moral meaning of painPain Management Nursing, by Esther I Bernhofer; 2/24In addition to a physical and emotional experience, pain is also a morally infused experience with deep, often subconscious, meaning for many sufferers. Whether justified or not, for many people, pain may represent loss, judgement, unworthiness, abandonment, punishment, and even existential suffering and thoughts of death... Yet the moral meaning of pain is rarely discussed and is often overlooked when establishing a relationship with and a treatment plan for a person with pain.

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Are hospice Google ratings correlated with patient experience scores? Evidence from a national hospice study

02/10/24 at 03:45 AM

Are hospice Google ratings correlated with patient experience scores? Evidence from a national hospice studyAmerican Journal of Hopsice and Palliative Care, by Ganisher Davlyatov, Mengying He, Gregory Orewa, Haiyan Qu, Robert Weech-Maldonado; 2/22Choosing hospice care for your loved ones is often challenging. Online ratings such as Google rating has become a go-to source for most consumers. Hospice Google ratings were highly correlated with patients' and families' experience scores as measured by the CAHPS survey.

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Primary author characteristics associated with publication in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management

02/10/24 at 03:40 AM

Primary author characteristics associated with publication in the Journal of Pain and Symptom ManagementJournal of Pain and Symptom Management, by Maurice C Scott, Katherine T Morrison, Riley Gillette, Ben Harnke, Jean S Kutner, Kathryn L Colborn; 2/24Scientific journals are the primary source for dissemination of research findings, and this process relies on rigorous editorial and peer-review. As part of continuing efforts by the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management (JPSM) to advance equity, diversity, and inclusion, JPSM's leadership requested an external evaluation of their publication decisions.Publisher's note: Please also see the accompaning "Evaluating equity in the Journal of Pain & Symptom Management's editorial processes" by David J Casarett, Vyjeyanthi Periyakoil, David Hui, Solomon Liao. I applaud JPSM for both undertaking this external review and reporting outcomes.

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Participant safety in multisite, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials in hospice/palliative care: Data from the contracted studies of the Australian National Palliative Care Clinical Studies Collaborative

02/10/24 at 03:35 AM

Participant safety in multisite, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials in hospice/palliative care: Data from the contracted studies of the Australian National Palliative Care Clinical Studies CollaborativeJournal of Palliative Medicine, by David C. Currow, Belinda Fazekas, Linda Brown, Slavica Kochovska, Katherine Clark, Meera R. Agar; 1/24Controversies surround conduct of phase III clinical trials in palliative care... These studies are safe for participants and generate knowledge to support informed patient decision making.

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Advancing the science of palliative care: Contributions of the Palliative Care Research Cooperative Group

02/10/24 at 03:30 AM

Advancing the science of palliative care: Contributions of the Palliative Care Research Cooperative GroupJournal of Palliative Medicine, by Jean S Kutner, Kathryn I Pollak, Karen A Kehl, Christine S Ritchie; 2/24The Palliative Care Research Cooperative Group (PCRC) formed to lead, catalyze, and empower a community of scientists to build an evidence base to ensure high-quality care and optimal well-being for persons with serious illness and their caregivers. The PCRC grew to 630 members representing 220 distinct sites... The PCRC filled an important void in serious illness science and set the stage for the next era of advancing serious illness research.

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A comparison of hospice care utilization between rural and urban children in Appalachia: A geographic information systems analysis

02/10/24 at 03:25 AM

A comparison of hospice care utilization between rural and urban children in Appalachia: A geographic information systems analysisAmerican Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care, by Radion Svynarenko, Guoping Huang, Jessica Keim-Malpass, Melanie J Cozad, Kerri A Qualls, Whitney Stone Sharp, Deb A Kirkland, Lisa C Lindley; 3/24Long driving times from hospice providers to patients lead to poor quality of care, which may exacerbate in rural and highly isolated areas of Appalachia. This study aimed to investigate geographic patterns of pediatric hospice care across Appalachia... State-level policies should be developed to reduce driving times from hospice providers.

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Parent priorities in end-of-life care for children with cancer

02/10/24 at 03:20 AM

Parent priorities in end-of-life care for children with cancerJAMA Network, by Prasanna Ananth, MD, MPH; Meghan Lindsay, MPH; Sophia Mun, MPH; Sarah McCollum, MPH; Veronika Shabanova, PhD; Sophia de Oliveira; Sarah Pitafi, BA; Rebecca Kirch, JD; Xiaomei Ma, PhD; Cary P. Gross, MD; Jackelyn Y. Boyden, PhD, MPH, RN; Chris Feudtner, MD, PhD, MPH; Joanne Wolfe, MD, MPH; 5/15/23Question What do parents who lost a child to cancer prioritize in measuring end-of-life care quality? Findings In this survey study of 61 bereaved parents, respondents prioritized end-of-life quality measures focused on symptom management and goal-concordant care, characterizing quality measures assessing their own psychosocial support and their child’s hospital resource use as substantially less important.

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Hospice capacity to provide General Inpatient Care: Emergency Department utilization and live discharge among cancer patients

02/10/24 at 03:15 AM

Hospice capacity to provide General Inpatient Care: Emergency Department utilization and live discharge among cancer patientsAmerican Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care, by Kyusuk Chung, M Courtney Hughes, Sara Rahmanian Koushkaki, Mia Richelle Risberg, Michelle Alcantara, Jennifer M Amico; 1/24Our results suggest that hospices capable of providing GIP care have lower live discharge rates than their counterparts. However, the fact that GIP care tends to be provided too close to death limits its effectiveness in preventing avoidable emergency department use.

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Live discharge of hospice patients with Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias: A systematic review

02/10/24 at 03:10 AM

Live discharge of hospice patients with Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias: A systematic reviewAmerican Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, by Stephanie P Wladkowski, PhD, LMSW, APHSW-C; Cara L Wallace, PhD, LMSW, APHSW-C; Kathryn Coccia, MM, MT-BC; Rebecca C Hyde, MLIS; Leslie Hinyard, PhD, MSW; Karla T Washington, PhD, LCSW; 2/24This systematic review summarizes the growing body of evidence on live discharge among hospice patients with Alzheimer's Disease and related dementias (ADRD), a clinical subpopulation that disproportionately experiences this often burdensome care transition.

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Hospice care experiences among Medicare decedents with and without COVID-19, 2020–2021

02/10/24 at 03:05 AM

Hospice care experiences among Medicare decedents with and without COVID-19, 2020–2021Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, by Ann Haas MS, MPH; Rebecca Anhang Price PhD; Marc N. Elliott PhD; Joan M. Teno MD, MS; Maria DeYoreo PhD; 2/24COVID-19, the third leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2020–2021, affected hospice care for all patients and their caregivers in many ways; patients with COVID-19 faced additional restrictions on visitations as well as direct effects of the disease. Using CAHPS Hospice Survey data from 3274 hospices nationally, we found that caregivers of Medicare decedents without COVID-19 diagnoses in 2020–2021 reported slightly worse hospice care experiences than caregivers prior to the pandemic. However, experiences for decedents with COVID-19 early in the pandemic (Quarters 2–4 of 2020) were 3.2 to 4.3 points lower than for decedents without COVID-19; these are medium-to-large differences, and larger than observed among any of the 20 most common primary diagnosis groups for the 2 overall assessments of care.

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Saturday Newsletters

02/10/24 at 03:00 AM

Saturday NewslettersResearch literature is the focus of Saturday newsletters - enjoy!

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Hospice & Palliative Care Handbook, Fourth Edition: Quality, Compliance, and Reimbursement; 4th Edition

02/10/24 at 03:00 AM

Hospice & Palliative Care Handbook, Fourth Edition: Quality, Compliance, and Reimbursement; 4th EditionAmerican Medical Association, by Tina M. Marrelli, with Jennifer Kennedy; 2023[This book] offers updated coverage of all aspects of hospice and palliative care for the entire healthcare team who provide important care while meeting difficult multilevel regulations. This edition includes examples and strategies covering key topics related to standards, guidelines, goals, and effective care planning.

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Today's Encouragement - from Terry Crews

02/10/24 at 03:00 AM

Be fearless in the pursuit of what sets your soul on fire. - Terry Crews

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Medicare threatens to pull funding from HCA’s embattled Mission Hospital

02/09/24 at 04:00 AM

Medicare threatens to pull funding from HCA’s embattled Mission HospitalSTAT, by Tara Bannow; 2/6/24Five years after investor-owned HCA Healthcare took over an esteemed nonprofit hospital in North Carolina, Medicare is threatening to cut off payment for any services it provides seniors. The rare and dramatic move follows a Medicare revelation that patient safety is in “immediate jeopardy” at Mission Hospital in Asheville. That designation is the most severe the agency can hand out. HCA has just a few weeks to fix the problems or lose its Medicare funding.

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Other Business Headlines of Interest, updated 2/8/24 per nasdaq.com

02/09/24 at 04:00 AM

Other Business Headlines of Interest, updated 2/8/24 per nasdaq.com

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Delivering effective messages in the patient-clinician encounter

02/09/24 at 03:00 AM

Delivering effective messages in the patient-clinician encounter JAMA, by Joseph N. Cappella, PhD and Richard L. Street Jr, PhD; 2/1/24Effective communication between patient and clinician is a core function of the medical encounter.In a survey of cancer survivors, communication breakdowns most often identified by respondents were failures of information exchange, both in information provided by the clinician (eg, too complex, not enough) and in missing information from the patient or failing to elicit it. ... [A] table provides specific examples of what clinicians can (and should not) do to accomplish [effective communication] goals.

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Today's Encouragement: from Michael Jordan

02/09/24 at 03:00 AM

Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it. – Michael Jordan

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Senior living providers can tap into $25 million grant to develop dementia-specific respite services

02/09/24 at 03:00 AM

Senior living providers can tap into $25 million grant to develop dementia-specific respite servicesMcKnights Senior Living, by Kimberly Bonvissuto; 2/7/24Senior living operators who provide, or are considering providing, respite services for family caregivers of people living with dementia can apply for a piece of $20 million in grant funding. The Alzheimer’s Association will use a $25 million, five-year grant award from the US Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Community Living to establish a new Center for Dementia Respite Innovation tasked with making respite services and service providers more dementia-capable. 

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Hospices & skilled nursing facilities: Report all managing employees

02/09/24 at 03:00 AM

Hospices & Skilled Nursing Facilities: Report All Managing EmployeesCMS: mlnconnects; 2/8/24CMS recently clarified that hospice and skilled nursing facility medical directors and administrators are always considered managing employees for Medicare provider enrollment purposes. You must report all current managing employees. If you haven’t reported a medical director or administrator, report them now. See the Medicare Program Integrity Manual: CY 2024 Home Health Prospective Payment System Updates (PDF) MLN Matters Article for more information.

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