Literature Review

Providers push lawmakers to make telehealth provisions permanent McKnights Home Care, by Foster Stubbs; 3/11/24 More than 200 healthcare organizations including LeadingAge and the National Association for Home Care & Hospice recently signed a letter to congressional leadership urging the permanent adoption of telehealth provisions affecting Medicare beneficiaries. Current provisions, which are set to expire at the end of the year, allow beneficiaries to access telehealth services in their home. 

NHPCO and We Honor Veterans welcome CMS clarification regarding Medicare Hospice Benefit for dually eligible veterans NHPCO Press Release; 3/11/24 The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) and its We Honor Veterans (WHV) program responded to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) clarification on concurrent care eligibility for Veteran beneficiaries. Under Change Request 13523 issued by CMS on February 22, 2024, the Medicare Benefit Manual is updated to clarify that a Veteran beneficiary who elects hospice services under the Medicare benefit may still receive services that are not included on the hospice plan of care and are furnished and paid under the beneficiary’s Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) benefits, in addition to hospice services.

Opportunity uncovered: How COVID-19 accelerated healthcare transformation Managed Healthcare Executive; by Patrick Horine, MHA; 3/6/24The COVID-19 pandemic left an indelible mark on the healthcare landscape, spotlighting critical areas for improvement while accelerating transformations that were already underway. From addressing disparities in equity and access to adopting digital health strategies, the pandemic has forced healthcare to move swiftly to meet urgent needs. First, let us look at some of the issues we had been facing and how these were changed by the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic. ...

Medicare Hospice – exploding in size but riddled with quality concerns Penn LDI, by Hoag Levins; 3/8/24 Five top experts on hospice care convened in a virtual discussion of the Medicare Hospice program. This video is the full session.

Wound coding changes bring compliance, legal questions McKnights Long-Term Care News, by Josh Henreckson; 3/5/24 Changes to end-of-life wound classification in a recent Minimum Data Set update should be a positive for long-term care, but regulatory and legal ambiguity still surrounded the new coding procedures at press time. 

Why home care leaders are now banking on ‘Caregiver-First’ cultures Home Health Care News, by Patrick Filbin; 3/4/24 Over the last several years, a notable trend is emerging in home care: Top-tier companies are shifting their focus from prioritizing customers to prioritizing caregivers. This strategic move reflects a growing recognition of the critical role caregivers play, and aims to address persistent caregiver shortages.

Ounce of prevention: Is a selling hospice or home health agency ready for the 36-Month Rule? McGuire Woods; 3/4/24Medicare-enrolled hospices and HHAsshould take the following steps toassess and avoid triggering the 36-month rule: [click on the link for content]

Premier Hospice Phoenix exits Medicare program, impacting local healthcareBNN, by Mazhar Abbas; 3/4/24Premier Hospice in Phoenix ends its Medicare agreement, sparking concerns among patients and providers. Explore the impact and future of hospice care.

‘Playbook’ offers strategies for home health, hospice firms to jump into value-based care McKnights Home Care, by Adam Healy; 2/28/24 Don’t drag your feet. As entities like Medicare Advantage and Accountable Care Organizations continue to grow and thrive, the time is now for home care to step into value-based care, according to home care consultants at Transcend Strategy Group. “The next two or three years are going to be very critical,” Tony Kudner, chief strategy officer at healthcare consultancy firm Transcend Strategy Group, said in an interview Tuesday with McKnight’s Home Care Daily Pulse. “Now is the time to build out the larger organizational competencies that value-based care is going to require.”

How AI will help the world's top hospital CEOs transform health careNewsweek, by Jeff Young; on 2/28/24Artificial intelligence is quickly showing the potential to revolutionize many aspects of care giving, from cancer diagnoses to clerical work. But AI also presents new risks, uncertainties and vexing ethical questions. With the release of Newsweek's ranking of the "World's Best Hospitals," executives at leading hospitals around the world told us how they are using the power of AI.

Embracing the platinum rule in palliative care: Treating patients the way they want to be treated Anschutz, by Tari Advani, MD; 2/26/24 One of the first take aways from this journey, for me, in a mid-career directional change from emergency medicine to palliative care was a move away from the golden rule and towards the platinum rule. Treat patients the way they want to be treated, not the way we want to be treated. It is so simple, it allows people to exist in their own context, with their own histories and their own wishes. And, we, as caretakers, take the kind of care of them that they want. Where had that idea been during the past 20 years of my career? How many situations had I judged, wrongly, based on my own preferences, not the preferences of the patient.

Value-based care now driving home-based primary care growth, experts sayMcKnights Home Care, by Adam Healy; 2/27/24When Independence at Home (IAH), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ home-based primary care initiative, concluded at the end of 2023, after more than a decade, it marked the end of an era. Over the period of the model, the rise of value-based care has given providers a wealth of opportunities to bring primary care into patients’ homes.

What to expect from your language services provider during CMS test call seasonMedCity News, by Kristin Quinlan; 2/26/24 Part of the CMS Star Ratings program, the Accuracy & Accessibility Study includes test calls designed to measure the accuracy of the information provided to a prospective beneficiary as well as the accessibility of interpreters in French, Spanish, Vietnamese, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Tagalog. The test callers ask a series of questions related to the plan’s policy; success depends, in part, on accuracy of the information provided and availability of interpreters.