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CMS Announces Final Rule for Hospice Payments for 2015
Yesterday, CMS confirmed the details of an earlier published proposed rule (May) set for publication on August 22, 2014 (final rule) regarding FY 2015 hospice payments. Anyone wishing a copy of the...
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Post-Acute Compliance 2015: OIG Targets
As is customary in late fall, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the Department of Health and Human Services released its Fiscal Year work plan. As a reminder or preface, the work plan is...
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Hospice: Risk/Reward for Institutional Growth
With the hospice market (in most areas) fairly well saturated and the core (source) demand from traditional referral sources “flat”, growing census is a challenge for agencies. Some agencies have...
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Medicare, Billing Audits and Self-Disclosure
Over the last six months or so, I’ve written a number of articles on the issue of SNFs, therapy contracts/contractors, and recent fraud settlements. I’ve also given a few presentations on the same...
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Modern Health Care Risk Management
The second most important function an executive and/or a governance board conducts (second only to planning) is risk management. This key leadership function is evolving rapidly primarily due to the...
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Health Care Leadership: Why its Hard, Why Many Fail and What it Takes to Succeed
The bulk of my work centers around gathering data, analyzing trends and working with the leadership of various organizations to implement strategy or more centered, strategies. The process is...
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The Supreme Court, False Claims Act, and Implications for Providers
Nearing the end of the Supreme Court session, the Court issued an important clarification ruling concerning the False Claims Act in cases of alleged fraud. In the Universal Health Services case, the...
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Hospice, Hospital Readmissions and Penalty Implications
Late yesterday, a reader (who also happens to be a client from time to time), posed this question to me. “When hospitals discharge to hospice and if the hospice has to readmit to the hospital, the...
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SNF Fortunes, HCR/Manor Care and Salient Lessons in Health Care
Long title – actually shortened. In honesty, I clipped it back from: SNF Fortunes, HCR/Manor Care, Five Star, Value-Based Payment, Hospitals Impacted Too, Home Health and Hospice Fortunes Rise, and...
View ArticleHome Health and Hospice: Strategic Movement in an Evolving Market
Last year 2017, was a bit of a “downer” in terms of mergers/acquisitions in the home health and hospice industry. Though 2017 was fluid for hospital and health system activity, the home health and...
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Value-Based Care: Why it Matters, or Should, for Post-Acute Providers
Value-Based Care is kind of a vogue term, one that I encounter quite often. I also have used it when speaking or writing and know most people have no idea what it means or how it can be developed...
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Sr. Living M&A Update – Third Quarter
This topic fits a line from the old police serials of my younger days. These are the favorites I watched religiously like Adam-12, the Rookies, The FBI, etc. The line, generally at a crime scene: Move...
View ArticleHospice Payment Basics/MedPAC
Even after all of the years that I have been in health care and particularly, post-acute care, I still field a good number of questions regarding Hospice, the benefit under Medicare, how payments...
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Non-Profit Ownership/Sponsorship Changes Moving at Record Pace
While mergers and acquisitions are generally down, affiliations, closings in some cases, and sponsorship changes in non-profit senior living and care are at a record pace. Back in July, I wrote about...
View ArticleCompliance Update: Fraud and Abuse
A complex area for providers, especially with respect to their compliance programs, are the concepts of fraud and abuse. Central to current requirements for compliance programs, all post-acute...
View ArticleHospice Special Focus, IDR, and Quality Reporting Program – 2024
Somewhat buried within the Home Health Final Rule (PPS) was an update on a CMS initiative to identify hospice agencies requiring additional regulatory oversight for poor care performance (poor...
View ArticleMedPAC Recommendations: Home Health, Hospice, Inpatient Rehab Facilities
Yesterday I wrote about MedPAC’s rate recommendations for SNFs for FY 2025. Recall, MedPAC makes these recommendations annually, assuming the full commission votes (in January 2024) for the...
View ArticleWednesday Feature: Outlook for 2024
Happy Hump Day! I hope all readers, followers, and visitors had a great Christmas Holiday. This post will likely wrap-up 2023 for me as tomorrow, I begin a bit of travel to see some long-time friends...
View ArticleWednesday Feature: Framework for Improved Staffing Levels
Happy Hump Day! Wow, winter has really settled in for most of the U.S. – cold and snow as far south as Arkansas and cold, almost everywhere. Next week looks a bit more promising, weather-wise....
View ArticleConference Board Report/C-Suite Outook for 2024: Concerns Ahead
The Conference Board, a renowned non-profit research organization, has recently released a comprehensive report that sheds light on the business outlook and concerns of CEOs for the year 2024. This...
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