Private Equity Firm Acquires Hospice with High Nurse-Patient Ratio

An Ohio hospice led by a previous Kindred Healthcare (NYSE: KND) executive has been acquired by private equity firm Stonehenge Partners Inc. The firm says it is committed to keeping the hospice’s model of having lighter caseloads for its nurses than are standard in the industry. Queen City and Capital City Hospice is headquartered in […]

Home Care Beats Assisted Living, Nursing Facilities in Hospice Satisfaction

Hospice care administered in the home is seen as higher quality than hospice care administered in an assisted living community or a nursing home, according to a new study from the Indiana University Center for Aging Research and the Regenstrief Institute. The study, published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, compared the quality of hospice services […]

Bill Calls for Hospices to Destroy Opioids After Patients Die

As the country is gripped by an opioid addiction crisis, the role of hospices in the epidemic has come under a spotlight. A new bill in Kentucky would aim to address some of those issues by improving the disposal of medications in the hospice setting after a patient’s death. A rising problem surrounding hospices has […]

Compassus COO: Hospice Must Become More Mainstream

More research is emerging indicating that patients are receiving hospice care too late. The COO of one large hospice provider believes that data can help combat this trend, but that a larger cultural shift is called for as well, to make end-of-life care more “mainstream.” Corina Tracy has been on the frontlines of end-of-life care […]

CMS Issues Data Guidance on Hospice Compare

The roll out of the Hospice Compare website from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has been updated again with a new data guidance. The website, which is similar to Home Health Compare and displays metrics related to the quality of care of a hospice provider, launched in August 2017. Since its inception, […]

Free Whitepaper: How Data Is Driving Hospice Decisions

What Home Health Operators Need To Know Click here to download. Since 2000, hospice use in the U.S. has soared, with the average length of stay up more than 64 percent. And as use has grown, so too has the availability of hospice-related data. It’s this data that will help drive home health operators to […]

Hospice Execs Make More Than Home Health Counterparts

Hospice nurses are in high demand, but not all positions are paid equally, according to the latest Hospice Salary & Benefits Report from the Hospital and Healthcare Compensation Service (HCS). Hospital-based hospice RNs received the highest pay, according to the 2017-2018 report, while for-profit hospice RNs received the lowest pay. The report analyzed statistics from […]

Home Health Players Line Up for Hospice Deals in 2018

The strong role hospice plays in the post-acute care continuum is being realized more and more by consumers, driving a surge in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity and overall interest in the space by home health providers. In fact, during Amedisys, Inc.’s (Nasdaq: AMED) third-quarter earnings call, CEO Paul Kusserow declared the company’s focus on […]

Trump HHS Pick Says ‘Amen’ to Home Health Benefits

President Trump’s nominee to replace Tom Price as head of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) expressed an interest to overhauling the way Medicare and Medicaid cover end-of-life care. He also praised the role home care can play in efforts to lower health spending through Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). While testifying before the Senate […]

Hospices Aim to Improve Transition Times

One of the most essential Medicare benefits for end-of-life care has a gap or two. Hospice, the end-of-life care provided by Medicare, is not often used for very long, even when patients could benefit from the care a lot sooner. Almost half of hospice patients were only admitted in the last two weeks of life—a […]