Literature Review

HHS to impose penalties on providers that block patients’ health information McKnights Home Care; by Adam Healy; 6/24/24In a bid to promote easier access and exchange of patients’ health records, the Department of Health and Human Services published a final rule Monday outlining penalties for providers that block access to electronic health information. ... Fragmented and inaccessible patient data can prevent long-term and post-acute care providers from seeing the full picture of a patients’ health. Hospitals, for example, are not required to share updates about a patient’s health with the patient’s post-acute care provider. As a result, home health and home care agencies frequently cannot access patients’ electronic health records to help assess and treat patients. Three disincentives: ... First, hospitals that commit information blocking can be subject to a reduction of three quarters of an annual market basket update. Second, clinicians eligible for the Merit-based Incentive Payment System will receive a zero score in the “promoting interoperability performance” MIPS category, which can be equivalent to roughly a quarter of the clinician’s MIPS score in a given year. Lastly, providers that participate in information blocking can have their Medicare Shared Savings Program or Accountable Care Organization eligibility revoked for at least one year. ...Editor's Note: Almost any solution raises additional challenges. How does HIPAA interface with this? How might a cyberattack at a hospital (or other healthcare agency) affect the patients' other agencies, putting them at risk as well?

Fixing the hospital-to-home health care transition Home Health Care News; by Andrew Donlan; 6/25/24 The transition between hospital discharge and home health care is often fraught with issues. Unfortunately, it also happens to be one of the most crucial parts of a patient’s care journey. With more sick and complex patients coming into home health care than ever, a swift start of home health care is also arguably more important than ever. ... The Discharge to Assess (D2A) Model was a response to this issue in England. The Supporting Older Adults at Risk (SOAR) program, following a similar framework to D2A, was also recently established in the U.S. A study of SOAR’s results within a pilot program in Pennsylvania was recently published in the Journal for Healthcare Quality.

‘Lot of work to be done’: What home health leaders expect from payment rulemaking in 2024Home Health Care News; by Joyce Famakinwa; 6/24/24 In recent years, home health care has faced relentless cuts from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). It has plagued the industry, but providers and advocates alike are still hopeful a light at the end of the tunnel is ahead. ... Home Health Care News recently caught up with PQHH CEO Joanne Cunningham and David Totaro, the president and executive director of Hearts for Home Care. ... [Cunningham said,] "I anticipate that what we will see, given CMS’s posture and prior rulemaking cycles, is the continuation of the policy that will put in place permanent cuts to the Medicare home health program. We’re bracing ourselves for an additional sizable permanent cut. We don’t know exactly what CMS has planned for the temporary cuts, otherwise known as the clawback cuts. We will certainly see, at a minimum, CMS identify what their new projected value of the temporary cuts are. ...

Silverstone Health expands care continuum beyond hospice, sees skyrocketing census growth Hospice News; by Jim Parker; 6/19/24 Dallas-based Silverstone Health has expanded its continuum of home-based services while growing its total daily census from 17 patients to 2,000. Silverstone came on the scene in 2020 as a standalone hospice after CEO Alfonso Montiel’s purchase and rebranding of Comfort Care Hospice in the Dallas-Fort Worth region. Since then, the company has built a palliative care service and is developing a personal care business. In the interim, Silverstone also acquired two small home health agencies for undisclosed amounts, as well as a physician group, according to Montiel. 

Home health agency racked up $8.5 million through fraudulent claims, hired employees with criminal historyHome Heath Care News; by Andrew Donlan; 6/13/24The former owner of a home-based care company – based in the Cincinnati area – has been found guilty of fraudulently billing more than $8.5 million from Medicare, Medicaid and Veterans Affairs (VA) over a six-year period. From 2015 to 2021, Sharon Romaine Ward submitted at least 92,770 claims on behalf of Halo Home Healthcare to Medicaid, and received $8.4 million between 2016 and 2021. She also admitted that she concealed her ownership of that company because of a prior felony conviction.

NIH: Hot weather safety for older adults OSHA: Heat - Working in outdoor and indoor heat environmentsOSHA - Occupational Safety and Health Administration; retrieved from their website 6/18/24 

Palliative care considerations in frail older adults Annals of Palliative Medicine; by Andrew E Russell, Rachel Denny, Pearl G Lee, Marcos L Montagnini; 6/6/24, online ahead of print...This paper aims to guide clinicians in providing patientcentered care for older adults with frailty in the outpatient setting. Through a comprehensive literature review, we describe the leading models of frailty, frailty screening tools used in the clinical setting, and the assessment and management of palliative care needs in frail patients. We also describe emerging models of care focusing on palliative care for older adults with frailty and discuss issues related to access to palliative care for this population.

Nursing homes are left in the dark as more utilities cut power to prevent wildfires News-Medical.net; by KFF Health News; 6/10/24 When powerful wind gusts created threatening wildfire conditions one day near Boulder, Colorado, the state's largest utility cut power to 52,000 homes and businesses — including Frasier, an assisted living and skilled nursing facility. It was the first time Xcel Energy preemptively switched off electricity in Colorado as a wildfire prevention tool, according to a company official. The practice, also known as public safety power shut-offs, has taken root in California and is spreading elsewhere as a way to keep downed and damaged power lines from sparking blazes and fueling the West's more frequent and intense wildfires. 

Navigating Aging: New help for dealing with aggression in people with dementia Northern Kentucky Tribune; by Judith Graham, KFF Health News; 6/9/24Caring for older adults with dementia is stressful, especially when they become physically or verbally aggressive, wander away from home, develop paranoia or hallucinations, engage in inappropriate or repetitive behaviors, or refuse to let caregivers help them. Upward of 95% of patients experience these neuropsychiatric symptoms of dementia, which tend to fluctuate over time and vary in intensity. They’re the primary reasons people with dementia end up in assisted living facilities or nursing homes. At some point, families and friends trying to help at home simply can’t manage. “When people think about dementia, they usually think about forgetfulness and memory impairment,” said Mary Blazek, director of the geriatric psychiatry clinic at the University of Michigan. “But it’s behavioral and psychological disturbances that are most disruptive to patients’ and caregivers’ lives.”

Man killed elderly parents, partner and himself in murder-suicide at SW Miami-Dade home NBC 6 South Florida; by Laura Rodriguez; 6/3/24A man shot and killed his elderly parents and partner before turning the gun on himself in a murder-suicide at a home in southwest Miami-Dade Sunday, police and family members said. According to police, [Jesus] Regueira [Jr.] shot and killed his parents, 83-year-old Jesus Regueira Sr. and 84-year-old Mercedes Morato, 61-year-old Kyrsten Stahre, who police identified as his girlfriend but family members said was his wife, before turning the gun on himself. ... The bodies were first discovered by family friend Joanna Cruz, whose mother was bringing food to Morato, who was under hospice care. ... “I think the problem was his mom had a severe stroke and she was in hospice and his mom was his life. Because someone had said that he wasn’t handling it well. The mom was there, but she had hospice coming in. His mom was his favorite person in the world. I don't know about the dad but I just know that’s probably what happened," Carol Miloch said. Editor's Note: Workplace violence in healthcare settings continues to rise, and to be a leading cause for nurse unionization and strikes.

IntellaTriage and CommonSpirit Health at Home deepen partnership with Homecare Homebase integration KMLK; Press Release; 5/30/24 IntellaTriage, the nation's leading provider of nurse-first hospice and home health triage solutions, and CommonSpirit Health at Home (CSHaH), one of the nation's largest nonprofit healthcare systems, went live with a secure integration between Homecare Homebase and IntellaTriage's triage platform, IntellaHub. Partners since 2022, the companies recognized that a deeper integration of their systems could greatly enhance their shared mission of improving patient and caregiver experiences. Home health and hospice electronic medical records (EMR) often lack interoperability, hindering efficient information exchange and patient care in the field. By breaking down these silos, both companies anticipate improved workflows, eliminated redundancies, and enhanced experiences for patients and field nurses. Editor's Note: This description emphasizes "field nurses." What about field psychosocial team members? Many hospice EMR systems are replicated from medical-centric documentation systems, without relevant fields and practice standards that are user-friendly for your social workers, spiritual care/chaplains, grief counselors, expressive therapists, and more. This editor's statement is not a assessment of this article's deepened partnership and its technology; rather, it is simply an observation and question for hospice leaders, whatever your EMR system.

Transformative peer connections: Early experiences from the ASCO Palliative Care Community of Practice American Society of Clinical Oncology; by Mazie Tsang, Cristiane Bergerot, Natasha Dhawan, Rushil Patel, Darcy Burbage, Tingting Zhang, Jafar Al-Mondhiry, Joseph McCollom, Ramy Sedhom; 5/22/24 online ahead of print in June 2024  ... there are barriers to implementing palliative oncology at many institutions for myriad reasons. ... In this article, we discuss an innovative strategy that ASCO implemented called the Communities of Practice (CoP). We share our experiences as the Palliative Care CoP and how our group seeks to develop processes and structures to collectively promote systemic change and enhance palliative care delivery for people with cancer. Our Palliative Care CoP engages with senior leaders, administrators, and those in power to achieve a shared vision of delivering holistic health care for people with serious illness. ... [We address] eight main domains:

Tuesday Health launches revolutionary Supportive Care solution with $60 million of strategic investment from healthcare leadersInvestors Observier; by PR Newswire; 5/21/24Tuesday Health, a pioneer in value-based care dedicated to transforming serious illness, has launched its innovative supportive care solution in partnership with Valtruis, Blue Venture Fund, Mass General Brigham Ventures , and CareSource. This alliance brings a $60 million strategic investment to Tuesday Health, fueling its mission to redefine supportive care for patients and caregivers facing serious illnesses. "Leveraging clinical expertise, advanced data solutions, and cutting-edge technology, while partnering with Ohio's largest Medicaid plan, its largest hospice provider and the unmatched palliative care experience of Mass General, Tuesday Health is dedicated to tackling one of healthcare's biggest challenges-providing support and care in the right setting, at the right time, for those facing serious illness", said Jim Wieland, CEO of Tuesday Health.Editor's Note: What is the difference between supportive care and palliative care? Click here for a description from ASCO, the American Society of Clinical Oncology.