Archive for Rural Healthcare
Recently, National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization leaders refused to consider independent hospices’ proposals for hospice Cap Reform that would improve patient access to end-of-life care, save hundreds of independent hospices facing bankruptcy from Cap demands, and save Medicare money.
NHPCO leaders confirmed directly to NAHA that they will support no meaningful Cap reform in 2009. Instead, they will propose that Congress spend $150 million to protect large urban hospices from future Cap exposure by raising cap allowances, but only in big cities. Read More→
Entrenched Hospice Interests Oppose Hospice Cap Reform, and Any Hospice Reform. Why?
Posted by: | CommentsNAHA has developed a 2009 hospice interim reform proposal that would improve timely patient access to hospice, reform the hospice Cap and provide relief for quality independent hospices facing devastating Cap demands, harm no hospice or patient, and reduce Medicare’s total end-of-life care costs by as much as $1 billion annually. Read More→
New York Times concludes, “In Hospice Care, Longer Lives Mean Money Lost”
Posted by: | Comments“Hundreds of hospice providers across the country are facing the catastrophic financial consequence of what would otherwise seem a positive development: their patients are living longer than expected.
Over the last eight years, the refusal of patients to die according to actuarial schedules has led the federal government to demand that hospices exceeding reimbursement limits repay hundreds of millions of dollars to Medicare.”
