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Resources by Topic: Hospice and palliative care

MedPAC Report to the Congress: Medicare Payment Policy: Hospice Services: Chapter 9
Discusses payment adequacy for hospice and palliative support services. Includes data on average costs by day and aggregate margins by urban and rural status, as well as demographics on Medicare decedents who used hospice during 2010 and between 2018-2022. Compares the actual hospice utilization rates in micropolitan, rural adjacent, rural nonadjacent, and frontier areas to urban hospice utilization rates.
Date: 03/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
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MedPAC Report to the Congress: Medicare Payment Policy, 2024
Annual review of Medicare payment policies, with recommendations to Congress. Includes discussion on Medicare payment policies directly affecting rural providers and beneficiaries. Addresses payment adequacy for Medicare fee-for-service payment systems, Medicare Advantage (MA), and Medicare Part D. Includes two mandated reports on special needs plans for beneficiaries dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid and the Rural Emergency Hospital (REH) designation.
Date: 03/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
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Rural Health Research Recap: Post-Acute Care in Rural Areas: The Role of Swing Beds and Nursing Homes
Offers statistics on availability of post-acute care in rural areas through skilled nursing facilities, home health agencies, hospice, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, and swing beds. Includes sections on prospective payment system and cost-based reimbursement, and provides statistics on the proportion of nursing home closures in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas from 2008-2018.
Author(s): Per Ostmo
Date: 03/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Research Gateway
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Rural–Urban Disparities and Trends in Utilization of Palliative Care Services among US Patients with Metastatic Breast Cancer
Reports on palliative care use among patients with metastatic breast cancer, utilizing 2004-2019 National Cancer Database data. Includes breakdowns by level of rurality, race, ethnicity, and other demographic and clinical characteristics. Discusses palliative care access and treatment disparities, and identifies trends.
Author(s): Jincong Q. Freeman, Adam W. Scott, Ted O. Akhiwu
Citation: Journal of Rural Health
Date: 02/2024
Type: Document
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Pre-Rulemaking Measure Review Measures Under Consideration: 2023 Recommendations Report
Reviews the 42 pre-rulemaking quality measures the Battelle's Partnership for Quality Measurement (PQM) considered during the 2023-2024 Pre-Rulemaking Measure Review (PRMR) cycle. Discusses measures for clinician, hospital, and post-acute care/long-term care programs. Includes rural references and considerations throughout.
Date: 02/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Partnership for Quality Measurement
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Implementation Costs of Technology-Enhanced Transitional Palliative Care for Rural Caregivers
Examines the feasibility and sustainability of a family caregiver-focused transitional palliative care intervention that uses telehealth technologies. Presents results of a budget impact analysis of a randomized control trial, community-dwelling rural caregivers of hospitalized patients with a serious, life-limiting illness and receiving palliative care during hospitalization. Describes potential reimbursement mechanisms available to offset health system costs to providing transitional palliative care to support caregivers, including transitional care management and chronic care management service reimbursement.
Author(s): Brystana G. Kaufman, Diane E. Holland, Catherine E. Vanderboom, Cory Ingram, et al.
Citation: American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care, 41(1), 38-44
Date: 01/2024
Type: Document
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Place of Care in the Last Three Years of Life for Medicare Beneficiaries
Examines place of care during the last 3 years of life according to days of institutional care (hospital inpatient or skilled nursing facility), skilled home care (home healthcare or hospice), or personal home. Analyzes sociodemographic factors of 199,828 Medicare beneficiaries, with data broken down by median days in care, age at death, sex, race/ethnicity, insurance type, health conditions, and metro versus nonmetro neighborhood.
Author(s): Haiqun Lin, Irina B. Grafova, Anum Zafar, et al.
Citation: BMC Geriatrics, 24, 91
Date: 01/2024
Type: Document
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January 2024 MedPAC Meeting Transcript
Transcript from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission's (MedPAC) January 2024 meeting. Covers payment adequacy and updates for physician and other health professional services, hospital inpatient and outpatient services, outpatient dialysis services, hospice services, skilled nursing facility services, home health agency services, and inpatient rehabilitation facility services. Discusses status reports on ambulatory surgical centers, Medicare Part D, and the Medicare Advantage program, as well as policy options for standardized benefits in Medicare Advantage plans. Includes rural references and considerations throughout.
Date: 01/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
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December 2023 MedPAC Meeting Transcript
Transcript from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission's (MedPAC) December 2023 meeting. Covers payment adequacy and updates for physician and other health professional services, hospital inpatient and outpatient services, hospice services, outpatient dialysis services, ambulatory surgical center services, skilled nursing facilities, skilled nursing facility services, home health services, and inpatient rehabilitation facility services. Includes rural references throughout.
Date: 12/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
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NHPCO Facts and Figures: 2023 Edition
Provides an overview of hospice and palliative care in the United States. Includes information and data on patient characteristics, access to care, reimbursement, barriers and facilitators to care, quality of care, and more. Includes rural references throughout.
Date: 12/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization
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