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Hospice Management Advisor Archives – May 1, 2011

May 1, 2011

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  • Medicare cuts to put hospices in the red by 2019

    As a result of two cuts to Medicare reimbursement, the hospice industry will see the overall median Medicare profit margin drop from 2% in 2008 to -14% in 2019, according to a study recently released by the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO).
  • Rural hospice evaluates different options for future

    Finding a way to serve hospice patients who are spread over a 10,000 square mile area is challenging, especially when some staff members are driving as much as 60 miles one way to reach a patient's home.
  • CMS reverses plans for advance care planning

    President Obama's administration reversed its decision to revise a Medicare regulation to include paying physicians to discuss good advance care planning with patients. This decision is a setback from an ethical and health care perspective, according to advocates for end-of-life planning.
  • New program looks at Veterans and end-of-life care

    The Hospice Foundation of America (HFA) recently released "Veterans and End-of-Life Care," a free online webinar written by Deborah Grassman, ARNP, of the Bay Pines Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
  • Veterans, families, and their experiences at end of life

    1. About 25% of all Americans who are dying are veterans men and women who have served our country as members of the Armed Forces. Yet only 4% of dying veterans die within the Veterans Affairs (VA) Healthcare Network; the majority of veterans are cared for by hospice and Health care professionals in the community.
  • View the term 'futility' through different context

    Hospital ethics committees could clarify and improve the way they handle issues involving life support in the intensive care unit (ICU) if they brought more nuance to any definition of the word "futile," an expert says.
  • Family assessment tool expands ethics consults

    Hospitals might improve their ethics consultation processes if they design and use a brief ethics family assessment tool to determine families' and patients' values, two ethicists say.
  • Free webinar available for hospice volunteer managers

    The Hospice Foundation of America (HFA) offers a new, free online webinar that examines the important role that volunteers play in hospice, and explores creative ways that hospices can recruit and retain volunteers.
  • Joint Commission offers PC certification

    Hospitals accredited by Joint Commission can now seek Advanced Certification in Palliative Care with the introduction of a new program. The certification program launches Sept. 1, 2011 and the standards will be available July 1, 2011.
  • Charities report some fundraising increases in 2010

    A majority of charities surveyed saw their fundraising revenue remain stable or increase last year, according to the 2010 Nonprofit Fundraising Survey, a report produced by the Nonprofit Research Collaborative (NRC), a coalition of six fundraising and philanthropic organizations.
  • Project reduces nursing home transfers at EOL

    Few nursing homes have a reliable process to help residents understand and document their end-of-life wishes, nor adequate procedures to care for them when they are dying. As a result, residents are often hospitalized during the last weeks or months of life, causing unnecessary suffering and possibly driving up health care costs.
  • Making health decisions for others not easy on surrogate

    Clinicians rely upon family members or other surrogates to make health decisions, such as entering hospice care, when an adult patient is incapacitated. A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine evaluates the effect of this practice on the surrogates.
  • Study highlights effect of cuts

    In a report produced by The Moran Company for the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization in Alexandria, VA, data from the Hospice Cost reports and the Medicare Claims data were used to evaluate the impact of Medicare reimbursement cuts on the hospice industry.