Archive for Medicare
Big News! Federal Court to HHS: Stop Using Invalid Hospice Cap Regulation, Nationally
Posted by: | CommentsNAHA Press Release: August 26, 2009
Judge Tells HHS to Stop Using Invalid Hospice Cap Regulation
On Friday, August 21, 2009, Federal District Court Judge George Wu entered final judgment against the Department of Health and Human Services in favor of Los Angeles Haven Hospice on its challenge to Medicare’s hospice cap regulation. Haven Hospice had challenged the regulation used to calculate the hospice cap on the grounds that it did not meet the clear requirements of the governing hospice cap statute. The decision demonstrates that HHS has been miscalculating the cap, and harming hospices, by failing to give proportional allowances that could decrease the cap liability of any hospice that has experienced periods of long average length of stay.
Read the full text of the NAHA Press Release
Read the Federal Court Judgment in favor of NAHA member Haven Hospice
NAHA Endorses Hospice Reform Legislation
Posted by: | CommentsNAHA Statement on the Medicare Hospice Reform and Savings Act of 2009
The National Alliance for Hospice Access (NAHA) endorsed legislation introduced today that reforms Medicare hospice regulations, improves patient access to hospice care, provides needed relief to hundreds of threatened hospices and saves the Medicare program as much as $2 billion a year. Read More→
Timely Access to Hospice Care May be Deteriorating, Particularly for Minorities
Posted by: | CommentsStudy Reveals Opportunities to Improve Access, Reduce Costs
Washington, D.C., June 15, 2009 – Timely access to hospice care is scarce and may be deteriorating, particularly for minorities, according to a comprehensive study of hospice use released today by the National Alliance for Hospice Access (NAHA).
The study identifies significant barriers to timely patient access to hospice care, especially for the 78% of Medicare decedents who die of non-cancer causes such as Alzheimer’s, heart and lung disease and the 14% of Medicare decedents who are non-white.
Click here to download the full press release in pdf format or continue reading below.
A newly released report from NAHA, using the detailed analytical inputs of Avalere Health LLC, a highly renowned healthcare research and analysis firm, clearly suggests that significant systemic barriers to timely patient access to hospice care exist and may be worsening (click the link below to read the first in a series of NAHA reports based on Avalere data).
NAHA Report — Barriers to Access: Medicare Hospice Access and Length of Stay, 2003 – 2007
Avalere’s comprehensive look at hospice use shines light on opportunities to improve access and costs:
- 4 out of 10 hospice patients got no more than 10 days of care
- Only 16% of hospice patients get 60 to 180 hospice days, the range that improves quality and costs
- Minority access to hospice care trails access for whites by 25%
- States where hospices have significant cap issues do best job of serving minorities but access is declining. Will these hospices survive?
Click here to download or read the entire analysis in PDF format.
The report goes on to provide data driven conclusions on Access to Hospice, Timely Access to Hospice, and Length of Stay.
Click here to download or read the entire analysis in PDF format.
Respected Medical Journalist Discusses “Cap” Pros and Cons
Posted by: | CommentsThe “hospice cap” is the maximum average cost per patient that Medicare will reimburse. Does this cap on average treatment costs limit good patient care, or is it just a commonsense financial control? As hospices provide care for a wider range of patients, costs can be more difficult to predict. Medical journalist Larry Beresford discusses the pros and cons of cap issues with Les Morgan of Growth House in this interview that also touches on other aspects of hospice finance.
Hospice Cap Crisis – Why are more and more hospices hitting the Cap?
Posted by: | CommentsHospice is the only Medicare benefit in which Congress has promised eligible beneficiaries unlimited care, but Medicare arbitrarily and retrospectively refuses to pay providers for those services. The result is the Hospice Cap Crisis, which is harming terminally ill Medicare beneficiaries, independent hospices and Medicare’s end-of-life care quality and costs. Read More→
NAHA Responds to CMS Call for Comments
Posted by: admin | Comments (0)The National Alliance for Hospice Access (NAHA) today filed its response to the CMS Call for Comments regarding the Proposed Hospice Wage Index for Fiscal Year 2010.
To read NAHA’s response and recommendations for hospice cap reform, click here.
To learn more about the Call for Comment and the CMS discussions/thinking on which it is based, click here.