Younger Generations of Hospice Workers Value Career Paths, Work-Life Balance

Hospices that are shaping their recruitment and retention strategies around work-life balance and career development have a fighting chance against competitors for sparse clinical staffing resources. As workforce shortages mount throughout the health care system, competition in the labor market has intensified. Hospices are increasingly competing with other health care providers for clinical staff as […]

Community Education Crucial to Improving Hospice Access Among Unhoused Populations

Identifying patients and finding referral sources are two challenging issues when it comes to reaching homeless populations in need of hospice. Improving equitable, quality care for homeless populations involves providing education to internal hospice staff and to community care partners and referral sources, according to Nycole Snodgrass, director of operations for hospice and palliative at […]

Facility-Bound Hospice Patients Less Likely to Get SIA Visits

Hospice providers in facility-based settings may be underutilizing Medicare’s service intensity add-on (SIA). Compared to routine home care, patients receiving the general inpatient level of care (GIP) were 22.8% less likely to have a SIA-applicable visit, according to an analysis by Abt Associates. SIA visits for patients in GIP on average had 67.6 fewer minutes. […]

Advance Care Planning Billing Rules Impede Equitable Access

Current advance care planning reimbursement structures are limiting utilization and access of these services, particularly among communities of color. The payment barriers blocking more equitable advance care planning are two-fold, existing on both the health care provider and patient sides. On the patient side, Medicare beneficiaries face out-of-pocket costs when advance care planning is performed […]

AAHPM Board President-Elect Holly Yang: Hospice Regulators Need to Consider Perspectives of Bedside Staff

As lawmakers wrestle with necessary improvements to hospice program integrity, they should seek input from the professionals who provide that care, Dr. Holly Yang, incoming board president of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) told Hospice News. Yang, who is board-certified in internal medicine and hospice and palliative medicine, will soon succeed […]

Palliative Researcher Oliver: Family Caregivers Are Also Patients

In many instances, hospices will not be able to provide care if patients lack the support of a family caregiver. Debra Parker Oliver, a professor in the division of palliative medicine at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, is currently researching behavioral interventions to enhance the lives of caregivers for family members […]

Compassus Makes Moves in C-Suite; Workforce Retention at Core of AccentCare’s Leadership Change

New COO Takes Helm at Compassus Laura Templeton has risen through the ranks at Compassus, recently becoming its new COO and executive vice president. Since joining the company in 2012, Templeton has served as senior vice president and chief of clinical operations. In the midst of a worsening industry-wide staffing shortage, Templeton was charged with […]

Focus Group Study: 30% Believe Hospice Intentionally Hastens Death

About 30% of participants in a recent study said they believe that “hospice intentionally hastens death and the dying process.” The data appeared in a recently developed evidence-based serious illness messaging toolkit from the MessageLab Serious Illness Messaging Project. The toolkit identifies new approaches for hospice and palliative care providers to break down barriers of […]

World Hospice and Palliative Care Day Raises Global Awareness

 Globally, the need for hospice and palliative care services has been growing faster than people can access them. This was the impetus behind the World Hospice Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA), which emerged from an Oct. 8, 2005 meeting of health care leaders in South Korea. During those discussions, it became apparent that a sizable portion […]