Hospices face ‘hard roads’ in budgeting for sustainable growth

Hospices face ‘hard roads’ in budgeting for sustainable growth
Hospice News; by Holly Vossel; 8/9/24
Hospice budgeting practices hinge on several factors, according to Matt Chadwick, CFO of Well Care Health. Building a sustainable financial structure for end-of-life care delivery can be a challenging feat when navigating the impacts of patient care and staffing needs, referral streams, operational expenses, billing claim cycles and compliance factors, Chadwick said... Quality and compliance are also important pieces of a hospices’ budget and growth potential as providers experience. Case in point, hospices that fail to comply with new quality reporting requirements set forth in the 2025 payment rule face a 4% penalty... “The budget should not just be solely 100% of the financial person’s responsibility,” Rachael Feeback, revenue cycle senior product manager of home and hospice at MatrixCare by ResMed, said. “It should be a conversation with the clinical side, the operational side, so that you’re understanding your different measurements for hospice and how that translates to the budget and not solely focused on the pure dollars behind it.”