Experts Share What's to Come in Home Care and Hospice - Part 6

In part five of this ongoing series, Lisa Remington, president of the Remington Health Strategy Group, discussed ways organizations can strategically plan ahead by looking at upcoming trends that are driving a more predictable future in healthcare.

Today, we hear from the president and CEO of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO), Edo Banach. He has held a variety of leadership positions and has used his industry experience and knowledge to deliver keynote presentations across the country.

Hospice will face validation, challenges and opportunities in 2019 and beyond. Most immediately, we will focus on ensuring that MedPAC’s recommendation for a 2% cut to hospice reimbursement is not acted upon by Congress. There are smarter, more effective ways to root out fraud and abuse that will not hinder access to needed services like an across-the-board cut would do.

In the medium term, we will continue engaging with CMS on the proposed carve-in of hospice into Medicare Advantage which was recently announced as a part of the Value-Based Insurance Design Demonstration.  We demand that consumers, patients and families must be assured of their access to the highest quality hospice care available under any new demo or model.  And as the legislative activity of the 116^th Congress gets underway, we will push for a statutory standard definition of community-based palliative care that would ensure reimbursement and allow hospice programs to provide care that meets a minimum set of quality and access standards.

Next time, executive director of EvergreenHealth Home Care Services, Brent Korte, will discuss how he believes potential upcoming industry trends will affect home health and hospice agencies in one, three and five years.