Start-ups are vulnerable to closures The reduced Medicare rate update for hospices that took effect Oct. 1 is hurting, but the pain is going to get a lot worse. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services finalized a 25 percent reduction to…

Watchdog agency finds inappropriate instances of respite care use, new report warns. Harsh scrutiny continues for the Medicare hospice benefit. The HHS Office of Inspector General undertook a study of hospice respite care following a report comparing hospice for nursing home beneficiaries versus…

Steer clear of reserved bed landmines, OIG warns providers. Hospices shouldn’t have to do all the heavy lifting when it comes to compliance for patients in nursing homes. The HHS Office of Inspector General has issued its new voluntary supplemental compliance program guidance…

Hospice CoPs throw unexpected accreditation curveball to suppliers. You don’t have to be accredited by the Dec. 2 deadline for the hospice CoPs if you serve hospice patients, but you have to be getting there. Suppliers and hospices panicked by the December…

Accreditation, beneficiary notices also addressed in forum. Hospices eager to comply with the revamped Conditions of Participation that take effect Dec. 2 aren’t getting much help from Medicare yet. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is still working on the interpretive guidelines…

But lawsuit, legislation didn’t stop cut from hitting Oct. 1. Hospices attacked the punishing wage index-based reimbursement cut from Medicare on multiple fronts, but so far their efforts haven’t been successful. The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization has filed a lawsuit against…

Don’t waste precious time and resources in these 3 circumstances. While it’s vital to know when to give out required hospice advance beneficiary notices under the new rules, it’s just as important to know when not to give them out. Hospices that…

Don’t forget about giving notices for hospital stays. You may have until March 2009 to implement the new advance beneficiary notice for hospice, but you should start working toward implementation well before that to ensure compliance. Hospices may be tempted to put…

March is the new target date for the revamped patient notice. If you haven’t started using the new advance beneficiary notice form for hospice, don’t worry – you’ve still got months to comply. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services allowed providers to start…

New hospice CoPs may be less help than you think. Your anxiety over possible kickback problems with nursing home arrangements might be well justified. The HHS Office of Inspector General has for the second year chosen hospice-nursing home relationships as an area for…