Literature Review

Alive welcomes experienced hospice leader as new CEO: Middle Tennessee's only nonprofit hospice provider poised to build on industry-leading reputationAlive Hospice; 6/13/24Alive, Middle Tennessee’s only nonprofit provider of hospice and palliative care and end-of-life services, today announced Kerry Hamilton as the organization’s new president and chief executive officer. He will begin his new role on June 24. A highly accomplished health care leader, Hamilton joins Alive with more than 20 years of direct hospice management experience, including a decade as CEO of nonprofit Hospice of Central Ohio. ... Hamilton’s hiring comes one year after news broke that Alive was considering a sale to a for-profit entity. The news led to a tremendous outpouring of support from the community for Alive to remain nonprofit. Ultimately, the Board of Directors made the decision that Alive would remain an independent nonprofit organization. The Board then began the search for a new CEO who shared its vision for the future.

June is Adult Protection Awareness MonthKREX Grand Junction (CO); by Jessica Livingstone; 6/8/24June is Adult Protection Awareness Month, and Mesa County kicked this month off by tying purple ribbons around their campus to show their support for the victims. WesternSlopeNow talked to HopeWest about the resources they have to protect the community. If you’d like to know more information about HopeWest’s resources, you can call or click here.Publisher's Note: How is your hospice participating in Adult Protection Awareness Month?

Tillery becomes 1st in NC certified as age-friendly care at homeThe Stanly News & Press; 6/10/24Tillery Compassionate Care has been officially named an Age-Friendly Care at Home organization by Community Health Accreditation Partner, Inc., (CHAP). Tillery Compassionate Care is the first hospice in North Carolina to achieve Age-Friendly Care at Home certification. “The 4Ms framework [what matters, medication, mentation and mobility] is evidence-based care and addresses the unique needs of older adults which leads to higher quality of life,” said Teresa Harbour, chief operating officer with CHAP.

WorldView announces Referral AI, the most accurate referral classification platform to increase home health and hospice revenue Investors Observer; by PR Newswire; 6/10/24 WorldView , a leading provider of integrated healthcare technology to the top home health and hospice EHR/EMR platforms, today announced the upcoming launch of Referral AI, an enhancement to automate intake referrals using a custom AI/ML model built specific for the healthcare industry. ... Home health and hospice agencies receive many forms of electronic documents in their inbox, including referrals for new patient service. Referrals must be acted on quickly, but with documents being dozens of pages, they often sit unread or, worse, are missed or overlooked. Over time, the referral can become invalid, resulting in lost revenue for the agency and posing a risk of delayed service for patients.

Five arrested over 'sham hospices' alleged to bilk Medicare for over $15 million Los Angeles Times; by Emily Alpert Reyes; 6/8/24 Angeles over an alleged scheme to bilk the Medicare program of more than $15 million. The U.S. Department of Justice said three of the San Fernando Valley residents who were arrested — Petros Fichidzhyan, also known as Peter; Juan Carlos Esparza; and Karpis Srapyan, also known as Tony Levy — were accused of running "sham hospice companies" and turning in fraudulent claims to Medicare for hospice services. ... As part of the alleged scheme, the three defendants misappropriated the identifying information of doctors to claim those physicians had deemed hospice services necessary for patients, federal prosecutors said. They also allegedly used the names and Social Security numbers of Russian and Ukrainian citizens who had left the U.S. to open bank accounts and sign leases, indicating that the "impersonated identities" were the owners of the hospice companies that they in fact controlled, according to the federal indictment. 

Forcura and HealthRev Partners announce Ecosystem Partnership Business Wire; 6/4/24 Forcura, a healthcare workflow management company, announces a strategic ecosystem partnership with HealthRev Partners, a prominent provider of revenue cycle management services for the home health, hospice, and palliative care sectors. This collaboration focuses on enhancing the referral process for agencies operating in these critical healthcare segments. 

Hospice Certifying Physician edit in effectAAPC - American Academy of Professional Coders; by Rebecca Johnson; 6/3/24 The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and its Home Health and Hospice (HHH) Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) are all systems go for the new — and potentially troublesome — claims system edit. The edit went into effect June 3. ... In the 2024 Hospice Payment Rate Update final rule, CMS adopted a requirement that two categories of physicians must be enrolled in or validly opted out of Medicare for hospice services to be paid: the hospice medical director or the physician member of the hospice interdisciplinary group; and the attending physician that certifies the patient for hospice. CMS did at least grant hospices’ requests for an implementation delay at that time, moving the deadline from the proposed Oct. 1, 2023, to May 1, 2024. Then, on the eve of that start date, CMS bumped the edit for one more month. ...

Empathetic AI: How Genai virtual agents will be leveraged Informa; by Josh Streets; 6/3/24 Imagine you're shopping online or in a store and have a question about a product. But you don’t want to find a store employee or call into their contact center to speak with a salesperson while you wait for answers. With a simple snapshot of a QR/UPC code on the product or a tap on your mobile device within an application, you're instantly connected to a virtual agent via video chat. This AI assistant not only understands your questions but can also pick up on your facial expressions and body language via your video discussion, to respond with empathy and some level of emotional intelligence. "I can see you're a bit frustrated," the virtual agent says with a warm, reassuring tone. "Let me walk you through the product details and address any concerns you might have."Editor's Note: This AI solution might be great for shopping, but is it ethical for hospice care, especially when the person calling might be elderly and assumes they are talking with a person? How would you feel, especially if you're calling when your loved is actively dying, or has just died moments before? 

NAHC, NHPCO to merge, Dombi to retire McKnights Home Care; by Adam Healy; 5/23/24 The National Association for Home Care & Hospice and the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization are on track to begin merging by July. In a related development, NAHC’s president William Dombi disclosed that he intends to retire by the end of 2024. “Both boards have authorized an affiliation agreement; it’s fully drafted,” Ken Albert, chair of NAHC’s board of directors, told McKnight’s Home Care Daily Pulse in an interview. “We’re looking to transition July 1 of this year. The transition board has been selected. I’ll serve as chair of that transition board; [NHPCO board chair] Melinda Gruber will serve as vice chair. Board members have been identified, and then that next six months from July to December will kind of be the operational integration. We’re in the process of recruiting a new CEO right now, and then all the tech-side, the backend, office-end, that’s going on right now.” Albert added that neither Bill Dombi or Ben Marcantonio, NHPCO’s chief executive officer, would be eligible to lead the new organization.

Androscoggin Home Healthcare + Hospice rebrands to ‘Andwell Health Partners’ Home Health Care News; by Andrew Donlan; 5/21/24 The Maine-based Androscoggin Home Healthcare + Hospice is rebranding to “better reflect its evolutions and future,” and will be operating under the name Andwell Health Partners moving forward. ... Andwell – formerly Androscoggin – is a nonprofit operator that employs more than 500 workers across all 16 counties in Maine. The company ... has expanded past just home health care over the years to provide hospice, palliative, behavioral health and pediatric care services to patients. Its president and CEO, Ken Albert, has served on the board of the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) ... including as chairperson of the board. ... The word Andwell is “an amalgamation of the organization’s history, mission and services,” the company said. Specifically, the “And” makes reference to Androscoggin, the “Well” emphasizes the focus on health and wellbeing and “Dwell” evokes its home-based care focus.

Hospice remains underserved by Medicare Advantage, data showsBioMedWire; 5/13/24 While the Medicare Advantage space grows bigger, it is difficult for regulators and the medical industry to decide how best to integrate hospice into MA programs. This is a major concern because hospice care is the only segment of the healthcare sector that isn’t catered for in Medicare Advantage (MA). ... Almost 50% of all individuals (1.7 million) on MA programs that succumbed to their terminal illnesses in 2022 were recipients of hospice services. ... 

AHA, H-ISAC warn hospitals about Black Basta following Ascension cyberattack Healthcare IT News; by Andrea Fox; 5/13/24 Meanwhile, staff at the health system say they don't have paitent orders and can't page doctors. As it works to restore clinical systems, Ascension says it's working with law enforcement and sharing threat intelligence to help prevent similar attacks. The Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center issued a threat alert Friday about the Russia-backed ransomware group Black Basta, warning of its accelerated attempted attacks against the healthcare sector. Prompted by H-ISAC, the American Hospital Association also sent a cybersecurity advisory with technical mitigation recommendations to its members. ...