-
When Katie Westbrook was 14 years old, she and her mother, Beth Westbrook, made a monumental decision together. Katie, who had been battling osteosarcoma since she was 12, had already endured several rounds of chemotherapy, surgery to remove a tumor in her lower back, a leg amputation, and an inoperable tumor in her neck. She decided she was ready for hospice.
-
t happens to the best of us. You need to call a potential donor, but you just cant seem to pick up the phone. You stare at it. You find another task to complete. You procrastinate. Something, anything seems better that having to make your calls. The mental anguish is almost unbearable.
-
Most hospices that provide pediatric palliative care must do so without reimbursement. But there are trends that suggest the days of care wholly subsidized by community support may be on its way out.
-
Even states that ranked high in hospice use earned low grades overall on a national report card prepared by the Last Acts organization in Washington, DC.
-
A state-by-state report card on hospice services shows most states are doing a poor job of caring for the dying. According to the report, patients are spending less time in hospice care than they did in the early 1980s when the movement first started in the United States.
-
Your budget is shrinking. Reimbursement is dropping. Expenses are rising. How can you meet the growing need for funds?
-
This is the first in a series of periodic columns that will address specific questions related to Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) implementation.
-
While most home health agencies think of emergency preparedness plans to address business operations during a natural disaster or terrorist attack, the Visiting Nurse Health System (VNHS) in Atlanta discovered that a good emergency plan also is needed when a state survey results in condition of participation-level deficiencies that jeopardized the agencys participation in Medicare.
-
Medicare tests program for smoking cessation; CMS proposes tracking hospital referrals to HHAs.
-
Home care providers still are struggling to obtain authorizations from managed care organizations (MCOs) for medically necessary and appropriate care.