Hospice news and information

San Diego-based Scripps Health has entered hospice care as the area's biggest hospice provider continues to scale down its operations under bankruptcy protection.
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Fewer seniors died in hospitals during the past decade and the use of hospice increased, but more elderly were also hospitalized within a month of dying or moved within days of death, research shows.
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Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center said it plans to sign a letter of intent to acquire Jordan Health Systems, a not-for-profit organization that owns a 155-bed hospital in Plymouth, Mass.
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Looking to bolster sagging revenue, Walgreen Co. plans to launch a national platform targeting hospice providers as soon as next year, an about-face after jettisoning its long-term care pharmacy business two years ago.
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Ascension Health's Michigan division announced the formation of Reverence Home Health & Hospice, a statewide homecare provider.
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Patterns of care vary widely among 23 top U.S. academic medical centers, according to a new report. The report's authors suggest these variations may be something medical students want to weigh.
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A federal judge in Vermont may approve a proposed legal settlement intended to guarantee Medicare benefits for people with chronic health conditions who need nursing and therapy services at home or in skilled-nursing and outpatient facilities.
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Leaders on opposite sides of Massachusetts' right to die debate are fighting for the same reason: Both have watched loved ones receive fatal diagnoses.
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Among dozens of new initiatives announced for 2013, auditors with HHS' inspector general's office plan to direct an intensive review in the coming year into whether hospitals are being overpaid for patients who end up discharged to other facilities or readmitted on the same day.
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The benefit structure of Medicare and Medicaid may encourage post-hospitalization beneficiaries to go into skilled-nursing facilities instead of hospice, even though hospice may be more appropriate.
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