Hospice news and information

Hospices are slated to receive an increase in their Medicare payments in the coming fiscal year under a final rule issued Friday by the CMS.
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A New Hampshire woman has filed a lawsuit claiming she was wrongfully fired from a hospice after making allegations about fraudulent billing.
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Two days before Independence Day, the Obama administration launched a firecracker of an announcement: It would delay by a year the employer mandate set to go into effect Jan. 1, 2014.
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Kindred Healthcare is selling eight nursing centers to Signature Healthcare for about $49 million.
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Much has changed in the years since the Institute of Medicine published To Err is Human and Crossing the Quality Chasm, companion reports released in 1999 and 2001 that sounded the alarm about high rates of adverse events and the urgent need to adopt proven best practices in healthcare.
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Medicare's watchdog office says tying hospital payment more closely to the timing of patient transfers from hospitals to hospice could have cut federal spending by up to $600 million over two years.
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Home health and hospice companies weathered a tough first quarter that was evident in bottom-line results that could not keep pace with last year.
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HHS' inspector general's office is launching an in-depth investigation into cases where Medicare hospice beneficiaries get inpatient care, following unusual billing patterns that surfaced during recent research on the $1.1 billion industry.
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The U.S. Justice Department is alleging that Vitas, the largest for-profit hospice chain in the U.S., inappropriately admitted patients for hospice care and billed Medicare for crisis care that was either unnecessary or not actually provided.
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Hospices would receive a $180 million boost from Medicare in the next fiscal year under a proposed rule issued Monday.
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