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Patients' right to freedom of choice of providers has been a source of continuing conflict, especially between hospitals and post-acute providers not owned by or affiliated with hospitals -- so-called freestanding providers.
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It's been 20 years since Springfield, MO, Medical Centers Hospice Program became the first U.S. prison hospice program, and now there are more than 70 hospice programs within state and federal prisons.
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In at least one way, the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, LA, is an ideal setting for a hospice: It's an encapsulated village in which 90 percent of its residents will die within its walls and fences.
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With an average of 300 new codes, and the development of guidelines that change the way old codes are applied each year, it is critical that your agency keep staff members up to date on coding requirements to ensure that you receive the highest appropriate reimbursement, say experts interviewed.
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All home health agency managers understand the need to market their agencies to ensure success. The use of web sites, brochures, sales staff, and communication with referral sources will produce success, but be sure that you are addressing all of your referral sources in your efforts.
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A recent Institute of Medicine (IOM) report recommends that Medicare gradually replace its current fee-for-service payment system with a new pay-for-performance system for its 42 million beneficiaries.
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All home health agencies have policies to prevent the spread of infection but with recent focus on the threat of a pandemic, home health managers need to look more closely at how well prepared their agency will be ...
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When staff at the Hospice of Chattanooga in Tennessee provide wound care, they work to help the patient recover a sense of wholeness.
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Health care spending growth in the United States slowed for the third consecutive year in 2005; and The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has announced the elimination of the 2007 late enrollment penalty for any beneficiary eligible for the low-income subsidy for a Part D plan.
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While it is important for home health agencies to prepare to handle a flu pandemic, there are other infection control issues that agencies face more today than in past years.
