WiHPCA is happy to remind members about and provide links to the latest articles and information from Hospice News and other publications:
· Congress Mulls Bills to Investigate Travel Nurse Agency Business Practices
Many hospices have relied heavily on travel nurse agencies to reinforce their clinical teams during the pandemic. Now, a pair of bills currently before Congress would require a federal study of those agencies’ impact on health care. The Travel Nursing Agency Transparency Study Act would instruct the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) to study the ways contract nursing companies have done business during the past two years, including accusations of price gouging. Read more…
· CMS: Hospice Recertification Via Telehealth Ends with COVID PHE
The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has reiterated that the agency will not allow hospices to use telehealth to recertify patients after the COVID-19 public health emergency expires. CMS published a blog and a series of fact sheets today that the agency described as a “roadmap” for health care providers to navigate the regulatory changes that will come when the PHE ends. This includes the fate of 1135 waivers that established temporary regulatory flexibility to help providers roll with the pandemic’s punches. Read more…
· Editorial: Fixing the Flaws in Palliative Care Laws
State laws passed during the last 10 years to promote palliative care have had little impact to date, according to sources interviewed by Hospice News. But that doesn’t mean we should throw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater. As they battle persistent misconceptions about their work, hospice and palliative providers must take every opportunity to make themselves heard, with every ounce of support they can get from lawmakers and others who are in a position to move policy forward. This is essential to their organizational growth and to getting suffering patients the care they need. Read more…
· From Sea to Shining Sea: State Palliative Care Laws Yield Mixed Results
Stretching back more than a decade, a rising number of states have passed laws designed to raise awareness of hospice and palliative care, but to date, few if any have achieved measurable results. The reasons for this run the gamut. During the past two years, for instance, state governments and health care organizations have been almost unavoidably focused on the COVID-pandemic. Read more…
· Medicare Claims for Unrelated Services Put Hospices at Risk
By Holly Vossel | August 17, 2022
Medicare claims for unrelated services creates serious financial and legal risks for hospice providers — even if they are not the ones who sent the bill. During recent years, payouts for non-hospice services provided to Medicare beneficiaries have tipped into the billions. Investigators have urged regulators to ramp up oversight of potentially inappropriate billing practices. The vast majority of the time, the hospice is not the organization billing for services outside of the benefit, but these practices and the regulatory response impacts them nevertheless. Read more…
Hospice News, which is part of the Aging Media Network, is a leading source for news and information covering the hospice industry.
