Category: Press Release

For Immediate Release:
December 6, 2021

Training created by hospice professionals expressly for professionals in the field

(Alexandria, Va) – Managers who have the room to learn and grow will be 3.5 times more likely to be happy and engaged and 3.3 times more likely to want to stay at their organization for two years, according to the LinkedIn Learning Workplace Learning Report 2021. But it can be challenging for managers to take time away from their place of work to get that critical training, especially with health care facing a workforce shortage crisis. That’s why NHPCO is now offering its Hospice Manager Development Program Foundational Course online.

NHPCO’s Hospice Manager Development Program is the only comprehensive management training program that provides hospice-specific information and helps managers develop the skills they need to meet the challenges and changes they face managing programs, systems, and people.

Previously, the MDP Foundational Course was only available as an in-person seminar offered by NHPCO at its annual leadership and interdisciplinary conferences and in collaboration with state hospice associations. Now, for the first time, this foundational course will be offered online, bringing the focused training and expertise of the Hospice MDP faculty to professionals wherever they are located.

The six-week MDP Foundation Course offers approximately 16 hours of instructor-led content that begins with an orientation on January 11, 2022. This will be followed by five instructor-led modules which include a blend of live Zoom classes, pre-recorded content, and reading material:

• • • Values-Based Hospice Leadership – January 20
    • Problem Solving and Decision Making – January 25
    • Applying the Situational Leadership Model – February 1
    • Interviewing, Coaching, Feedback, and Evaluation Skills – February 8
    • Regulations and Standards for Hospice Managers – February 15

CE/CME is available for nurses, physicians, and non-physician healthcare professionals.

The MDP Foundational Course will be offered online two additional times in 2022 and as an in-person pre-conference workshop at the 2022 Leadership and Advocacy Conference at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center on March 5 and 6. The online course will be offered again in May and September of 2022.

The Manager Development Program also includes online learning modules that allow program participants to move from Level I to Level II; advanced study is required to achieve Level III of the program.

What previous MDP Foundation Course participants have said:

• • • “As a new manager, after this program I feel more confident. Thank you!”
    • “This course was a tremendous help in every area. With this knowledge we can improve so much—best hospice course I ever had.”
    • “The course not only allowed me to assess and look at the employees I have, but it makes me look at myself and my leadership style. I feel empowered me to make some changes in order to become more effective as a manager.”

Registration Links:

Register for the January 2022 MDP Foundational Course.

Registration for the onsite foundational course offered prior to the Leadership and Advocacy Conference will open on December 10,2021.

Register for the May 2022 foundational course or the September 2022 foundational course.

Education in 2022:
Download the 2022 NHPCO Professional Development Opportunities brochure (PDF) to learn about other educational offerings for the year ahead.

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Contact:
Jon Radulovic
NHPCO Communications
Ph: 571-412-3973

For Immediate Release:
December 5, 2021

NHPCO Honors Senator Robert Dole for his Support of Hospice Care in the U.S.

Dole was a Congressional Champion and Architect of the Medicare Hospice Benefit

(Alexandria, Va) – The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) honors Senator Robert Dole who died today at the age of 98. Bob Dole served as a Senator representing Kansas from 1969 to 1996, notably serving as the Republican leader of the United States Senate from 1985 until he left the Senate. Dole will be remembered as one of the pioneering congressional champions of the hospice model of care.

Among many notable achievements in his career dedicated to public service was the role he played in the creation of the Medicare Hospice Benefit. Senator Dole first introduced legislation in the U.S. Senate (S. 1958) to create a hospice benefit under Medicare in December 1981. Legislation in the House of Representatives (H.R. 5180) was sponsored by Representatives Leon Panetta (D-CA) and Bill Gradison (R-OH). The hospice benefit was established in 1982 as part of the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act (TEFRA). Final implementing regulations were published in the Federal Register on December 16, 1983.

Earlier this year, Sec. Leon Panetta addressed the audience attending an online NHPCO conference. Speaking from the offices of the Panetta Institute for Public Policy in Seaside, Calif., Panetta said, “Bob Dole was a friend and partner in passing the bill to provide Medicare coverage for Hospice services. The bill would not have become law without his leadership. He was a mentor to me in Congress and a dedicated public servant.”

Today, NHPCO President and CEO Edo Banach remarked, “Senator Dole’s dedication and commitment to ensure Americans had access to the highest quality of care when coping with life-limiting illness helped hospice care to evolve from a grassroots moment in the U.S. to an integral part of the health care landscape.”

“Since the creation of the Medicare hospice benefit, millions of Americans have had the support of hospice care at life’s end as have many of their family caregivers who received training and support from the hospice interdisciplinary team,” Banach added. “For that, we can thank Senator Dole.”

Dole was married to Elizabeth Dole, a former Senator from North Carolina, for 46 years. An advocate for hospice herself, Elizabeth Dole, served as NHPCO’s National Director for Hospice Education and Information in 2001 and used this opportunity to raise awareness of the benefits provided by hospice.

In 2005, Senator Dole and Senator Elizabeth Dole served as honorary chairs of the annual gala of the National Hospice Foundation, an affiliate of NHPCO. In sharing his support for the hospice community and the work of NHF, Dole said, “The National Hospice Foundation helps engender the true spirit of compassionate care through its work and support for hospice programs nationwide, carrying on a 40-year tradition of hospice care first launched in London, England. The Foundation, through its work and advocacy, has helped build a hospice network in the United States and foster a new awareness of the needs of those in hospice and palliative care across the nation and around the globe.”

In 2007, NHF hosted a gala to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the creation of the Medicare Hospice Benefit. To mark this special occasion, NHPCO and NHF honored the members of Congress who championed the cause among their peers. Former Senators Robert Dole and John Heinz (posthumously, with Teresa Heinz Kerry accepting), and former Congressmen Bill Gradison and Leon Panetta were the special award recipients and joined together on stage to discuss those early years of hospice advocacy.

The broad hospice and palliative care provider community honors Senator Dole and extends deepest sympathies to his family, colleagues, and all those whose lives he touched.

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Contact:
Jon Radulovic
NHPCO Communications
Ph: 571-412-3973

About NHPCO
As the leading organization representing integrated, person-centered healthcare, NHPCO gives ongoing inspiration, practical guidance, and legislative representation to hospice and palliative care providers so they can enrich experiences for patients and ease caregiving responsibilities and emotional stress for families.

To learn more about hospice and palliative care or for information to help people coping with serious illness, please visit NHPCO’s CaringInfo.org.

For Immediate Release:
December 2, 2021

(Alexandria, Va) – The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) today expressed the collective concern of the hospice community about the negative impacts on patients of the Continuing Resolution (CR) under consideration in Congress to extend the government’s current budget through February 18. The CR does not address two automatic cuts to Medicare hospice payments—Medicare sequester cuts and PAYGO sequester cuts—both of which were written into law years ago and do not take into account today’s economic realities, the global pandemic, or the ongoing national shortage of healthcare workers. The two cuts combined would mean a six percent reduction of Medicare payments to America’s hospices starting in January, while they continue to provide the same level of end-of-life and bereavement care for patients and their families.

NHPCO President and CEO Edo Banach said, “Last year, a bipartisan majority recognized that cutting payments would be cruel to patients and would hurt the viability of hospices at the worst possible time—and they put a moratorium on the cuts. Since then, none of these fundamentals have changed: we’re still in the middle of the COVID-19 public health emergency, there is still a national shortage of healthcare workers, and hospice care remains essential. So, while we’re disappointed that the Continuing Resolution currently under consideration does nothing to address these looming cuts, we are confident that Congress still recognizes the unique value of hospice care, and we will work to ensure these cuts are addressed in other legislation over the coming months.”

As the leading voice of the hospice community in Washington, NHPCO has worked tirelessly to ensure Congress understands how policy impacts hospices and their patients. NHPCO’s advocacy on the Medicare sequester and PAYGO cuts most recently included a joint letter to Congressional leaders with the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) and LeadingAge.

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Contact:
Jon Radulovic
NHPCO Communications
Ph: 571-412-3973

For Immediate Release:
November 30, 2021

The Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act and the Provider Training in Palliative Care Act Both Help Build the Cadre of Knowledgeable Doctors and Nurses

(Alexandria, Va) – The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) today announced its endorsement of two important pieces of national legislation that will help address workforce challenges facing NHPCO members across the country. The announcement was made as a bookend to National Hospice and Palliative Care Month, a month in which communities and leaders across the country honored the essential work of hospice and palliative care providers, including with a Resolution of the U.S. Senate.

The Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act

The first bill—a bipartisan, bicameral bill known as the Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act, introduced in the House of Representatives as H.R. 2255 and in the Senate as S. 1024—will help address a shortage of doctors and nurses in the United States, which has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The bill will “recapture” unused work visas, enabling up to 25,000 nurses and up to 15,000 doctors to apply for visas. Congress annually authorizes thousands of visas for USCIS to admit foreign nationals to work in the United States and eventually pursue citizenship. Each year, unused visas are wasted, and since 1992 there have been more than 200,000 such wasted visas. Under this legislation, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) could repurpose a fraction of those unused visas for nurses and doctors. The Senate bill is sponsored by Sens. Richard Durbin (D-IL), John Cornyn (R-TX), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Todd Young (R-IN), Chris Coons (D-DE), and Susan Collins (R-ME), and the House bill is sponsored by Reps. Brad Schneider (D-IL), Tom Cole (R-OK), Tom O’Halleran (D-AZ), and Don Bacon (R-NE).

The Provider Training in Palliative Care Act

The second piece of legislation is a bipartisan bill introduced by Sens. Jackie Rosen (D-NV), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Tina Smith (D-MN). The Provider Training in Palliative Care Act (S. 2890) will leverage programs of the National Health Service Corps (NHSC), which provides tuition assistance and loan repayment options to medical students in exchange for them providing primary care services in underserved communities, in order to expand the number of doctors and nurses knowledgeable in palliative care. The bill will allow individuals enrolled in NHSC’s Scholarship Program or Loan Repayment Program to defer their obligated service in order to receive training in palliative care for up to a year, thus building a cadre of healthcare providers with a both palliative care and community service experience.

“Workforce challenges, including staff recruitment, retention, and satisfaction, are the number one issue facing hospice and palliative care providers across the country. While these challenges exist across all healthcare segments, the impacts are unique in hospice and palliative care settings, which are chronically underfunded,” said NHPCO President and CEO, Edo Banach. “With the advice of our Legislative Affairs Committee, NHPCO endorses the Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act and the Provider Training in Palliative Care Act. These bills will represent a down payment toward building the staffing infrastructure necessary to ensure the U.S. can care for our seriously ill and for those who want patient-centered, interdisciplinary care at the end of life. Thank you to all the Representatives and Senators who have sponsored these bills. NHPCO looks forward to working with you to garner additional Congressional support and ensure passage of these important pieces of legislation.”

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Take action: Congress is considering leaving town for Christmas without preventing massive cuts to Medicare. Call on your Member of Congress to stop these cuts to hospice now. Hospice Action Network’s legislative action center makes it easy. Visit https://www.hospiceactionnetwork.org/take-action/#/59

Contact:
Jon Radulovic
Communications
Ph: 571-412-3973

For Immediate Release:
November 30, 2021

(Alexandria, Va) – The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) endorsed the Children’s Program of All-Inclusive Coordinated Care (ChiPACC) Act of 2021 (H.R. 4952), introduced by Reps. Diana DeGette (D-CO) and Michael McCaul (R-TX). The bill will allow patients under 21 years of age receiving Medicaid-supported treatment for serious illnesses to access specialized, patient-centered, interdisciplinary palliative care focused on easing pain and discomfort, reducing stress, and improving quality of life, while continuing to pursue cure-seeking treatments.

As the country wraps up National Hospice and Palliative Care Month, a period in which communities and leaders across honored the essential nature of hospice and palliative care, NHPCO noted that ChiPACC removes barriers to a children’s program of all-inclusive coordinated care, including the current separation of curative and palliative treatments, as well as a requirement that hospice care only be provided for patients with a prognosis of six months or less to live.

“When families face something as tremendously difficult as the serious illness of a child, they should not have to worry about whether their child is getting the care they deserve,” said Edo Banach, NHPCO President and CEO. “We can remove parents’ and patients’ burden of having to choose between hoping for a cure and benefiting from palliative care, when it’s clear they should have both.”

“Thank you to Representatives Diana DeGette and Michael McCaul for their leadership in pioneering access to palliative care for children experiencing serious illness,” Banach continued. “For more than 40 years, hospices around the country have developed a patient-centered, interdisciplinary model of care focused on supporting patients at the end of life and their families. The lessons from that model can and should be applied to palliative care with life-improving outcomes for patients with serious illnesses. NHPCO will continue working with elected officials to expand access to interdisciplinary patient-centered palliative care through ChiPACC and other changes to Medicare and Medicaid.”

Learn more about NHPCO’s efforts to advance pediatric hospice and palliative care.

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Take action: Congress is considering leaving town for Christmas without preventing massive cuts to Medicare. Call on your Member of Congress to stop these cuts to hospice now. Hospice Action Network’s legislative action center makes it easy. Visit https://www.hospiceactionnetwork.org/take-action/#/59

Contact:
Jon Radulovic
Communications
Ph: 571-412-3973

For Immediate Release:
November 22, 2021

Hospice, Aging, and Home Care Organizations Urge Congress to Delay Payment Cuts Due to Pandemic

NHPCO, LeadingAge, and NAHC, Advocate for Sequester Moratorium

(Alexandria, Va) – The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) today published a letter (PDF) urging Congressional leaders to take action to prevent automatic cuts in Medicare hospice payments from taking effect at the end of this session of Congress. The letter, which was sent jointly by NHPCO, the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC), and LeadingAge, addresses Medicare sequester cuts and Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010 (Statutory PAYGO) sequester cuts, both of which loom on the horizon.

Citing the “physical, mental, and emotional toll the pandemic has taken on hospice and palliative care practitioners,” as well as the severe financial pressure COVID-19 has placed on hospices—including but not limited to: higher expenses for labor, personal protective equipment, and other supplies; and lowered revenues due to limitations on in-person fundraisers and limited patronage of thrift stores, both of which typically provide significant revenue to many nonprofit hospices in particular—the letter urges that “Now is not the time for reductions in Medicare payments to providers that could further exacerbate access challenges for those in need of high-quality serious illness care.”

NHPCO President and CEO, Edo Banach, said, “The automatic Medicare sequester cuts faced by the hospice community and Statutory PAYGO cuts were built into legislation years before COVID-19. Allowing these cuts to go into effect in the middle of a pandemic would harm serious illness and end-of-life patients. A year ago, we were pleased to work with both Democrats and Republicans in Congress to ensure bipartisan support for preventing the cuts from taking place. Now we are again reaching out to supporters in the House and Senate to ensure these short-sighted cuts can be put off until the COVID-19 public health emergency is behind us.”

Throughout the pandemic, NHPCO has worked to ensure the hospice voice is heard in Washington. Those advocacy efforts have yielded significant results, including $1 billion in Provider Relief Funding for hospices and a previous moratorium on sequester payments.

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Contact:
Jon Radulovic
NHPCO Communications
Ph: 571-412-3973

For Immediate Release:
November 19, 2021

Resolution honors importance of hospice and palliative care and the providers serving their communities

(Alexandria, Va) – National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) President and CEO, Edo Banach, today thanked the U.S. Senate for officially recognizing the essential work of hospice and palliative care providers across the U.S. Banach made the following statement in response to a Senate Resolution designating November 2021 as National Hospice and Palliative Care Month:

“The Senate Resolution for National Hospice and Palliative Care Month recognizes that every day, across the country, hospice and palliative care workers provide unique, person-centered, interdisciplinary care to people who have a serious illness or who are toward the end of life. Palliative and hospice care helps patients have the best quality of life and live out their lives in a way that reflects their heartfelt values; minimizes pain and maximizes comfort; ensures that families can be actively engaged in caregiving; and supports patients’ social, emotional, spiritual, and physical needs.

“After nearly two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of hospice and palliative care providers is clearer today than ever. The Senate Resolution honors their work to ensure all Americans have equitable access to serious illness and end-of-life care. Throughout the pandemic, NHPCO has worked with officials in Washington to ensure that hospice and palliative care providers get the support they need to continue serving their communities. Today we thank the U.S. Senate for recognizing the importance of hospice and palliative care. Special appreciation goes to four Senators who have shown leadership on this issue and who introduced the Resolution: Senator Jacky Rosen, Senator John Barrasso, Senator Tammy Baldwin, and Senator Deb Fischer.”

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Contact:
Caleb Tiller
Vice President, Marketing, Communications, and Membership
571-412-4032

For Immediate Release:
November 4, 2021

U.S. Hospices Demonstrate Commitment to Quality through NHPCO’s Quality Connections Program

102 Hospice Programs have Earned Achievement Rings in Third Quarter

(Alexandria, Va) – As November’s National Hospice and Palliative Care Month begins for 2021, the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) celebrates the 102 hospice programs that have earned achievement rings as of the third quarter in the inaugural year of NHPCO’s Quality Connections (QC) program. Each ring earned represents a program’s commitment to continuous quality improvement.

NHPCO has created a Quality Connections map of the United States that lists participating hospice programs who have made advances in the Quality Connections program to date.

“November is a time when the hospice and palliative care provider community reaches out to raise awareness and educate the public about the important care they provide within their communities,” said NHPCO President and CEO Edo Banach. “There is no better time to acknowledge hospice programs in the U.S. that are not only providing high-quality, person-centered care, but are committed to continuous program improvement. By earning rings that are part of the Quality Connections program, they are showing that quality matters to those they serve and to the payers and other providers that they work with.”

The four rings are based on foundational pillars:  Education, Application, Measurement, and Innovation. Each Ring has specific activities incorporating practical resources to progressively track and improve both clinical and organizational quality.

“These hospice providers that have earned rings are proving that their commitment to quality is real and is part of their organizational culture,” noted Banach.

Quality Connections is a benefit of NHPCO provider membership. For organizations that already have an established quality improvement program, QC can build on and streamline what they already have in place. If a provider needs to enrich their quality improvement efforts, QC will provide the guidance and resources they need.

NHPCO thanks the Quality Connections Gold Level Sponsors Curitec and Optum Hospice Pharmacy Services as well as Silver Level Sponsor ADVault, Inc. for their support to advance continuous quality improvement.

As of the third quarter of 2021, the following Quality Connections participants have earned rings.

Earning Four Rings:

Calvert Hospice, Maryland – (Education, Application, Measurement, Innovation)

Earning Three Rings:

Bluegrass Care Navigators, Kentucky – (Education, Applications, Innovation)
Delaware Hospice, Inc. – Delaware Office – (Education, Applications, Innovation)
Heart’s Way Hospice, Texas – (Education, Applications, Measurement)
MJHS Hospice and Palliative Care Program, New York – (Education, Applications, Innovation)
St. Croix Hospice, Minnesota – (Education, Applications, Innovation)
Suncoast Hospice, Florida – (Education, Applications, Innovation)

 Earning Two Rings:

Agape Hospice Services, Colorado – (Education, Application)
BridgingLife Hospice, Maryland – (Education, Application)
Caring Circle, Michigan – (Education, Application)
Columbus Hospice of Georgia and Alabama, Georgia – (Education, Application)
Goodwin House Palliative Care and Hospice, Virginia – (Education, Application)
Harbor Hospice, Michigan – (Education, Application)
Hope Healthcare, Florida – (Education, Application)
Horizon Hospice LLC, Washington – (Education, Application)
Hospice & Community Care, South Carolina – (Education, Application)
Hospice & Palliative Care Buffalo, Inc., New York – (Education, Application)
Hospice of North Idaho, Idaho – (Education, Application)
Hospice of the Chesapeake, Maryland – (Education, Application)
Hospice of the Northwest, Washington – (Education, Application)
Hospice of the Panhandle, West Virginia – (Education, Application)
Hospice of West Tennessee, Tennessee – (Education, Application)
Karen Ann Quinlan Hospice, New Jersey – (Education, Application)
Lakeland Area Hospice, Pennsylvania – (Education, Application)
Lightways Hospice and Serious Illness Care (formerly Joliet Area Community Hospice), Illinois – (Education, Measurement)
Notre Dame Hospice, Massachusetts – (Education, Application)
Partners In Home Care-Hospice, Montana – (Education, Application)
Providence Hospice of Seattle, Washington – (Education, Application)
Providence St. Joseph Health – Home and Community Services, California – (Education, Application)
Sangre De Cristo Community Care, Colorado – (Education, Application)
Serenity Hospice and Home, Illinois – (Education, Application)
The Denver Hospice, Colorado – (Education, Application)
Tidewell Hospice, Inc., Florida – (Education, Application)
Transitions LifeCare, North Carolina – (Education, Application)
Treasure Coast Hospice, Florida – (Education, Application)
Trellis Supportive Care, North Carolina – (Education, Application)
Unity Point Hospice, Iowa – (Education, Application)
UnityPoint at Home, Iowa – (Education, Application)
VITAS Healthcare, Pennsylvania 0 (Education, Application)
VITAS Healthcare Chicago South, Illinois – (Education, Application)
VNA Hospice and Palliative Care of Southern California, California – (Education, Application)
Yolo Hospice, California – Education, Application)

Earning One Ring:

Arizona Care Hospice, Arizona – (Application)
Arkansas Valley Hospice, Inc., Arkansas – (Education)
Avow Hospice, Florida – (Education)
BSA Hospice of the Southwest, Texas – (Education)
Carris Health-Rice Hospice, Minnesota – (Education)
Centra Hospice Farmville, Virginia – (Education)
Centra Hospice of the Hills, Virginia – (Education)
CentraCare Hospice, Minnesota – (Education)
Circle of Life Hospice, Arkansas – (Education)
Community Hospice Care, Alabama – (Education)
East End Hospice, New York – (Education)
Freedom Hospice, Kansas – (Education)
Good Shepherd Hospice , Oklahoma – (Education)
HealthPartners Hospice & Palliative Care, Minnesota – (Education)
High Peaks Hospice & Palliative Care – Mineville, New York – (Education)
HoriSun Hospice, Inc., Nebraska – (Education)
Hospice & Community Care, Pennsylvania – (Education)
Hospice at Home Arizona, Arizona – (Education)
Hospice of Douglas County – A Division of Horizon Public Health, Minnesota – (Education)
Hospice of Dubuque, Iowa – (Education)
Hospice of Hilo dba Hawaii Care Choices, Hawaii – (Education)
Hospice of Humboldt, California – (Education)
Hospice of Huntington, West Virginia – (Education)
Hospice of Jackson County, Inc., Iowa – (Education)
Hospice of Limestone County, Alabama – (Education)
Hospice of Southern West Virginia, Inc., West Virginia – (Education)
Hospice of St. Mary’s, Maryland – (Education)
Hospice of the Ozarks, Arkansas – (Education)
Hospice of the Red River Valley, North Dakota – (Education)
Hospice of Yuma, Arizona – (Education)
Hospice Services of NWKS, Kansas – (Education)
Interim Hospice of the Twin Cities, Minnesota – (Education)
Intrepid USA Healthcare Services, Texas – (Education)
Lakeside Hospice, Inc., Alabama – (Education)
Lakeside Hospice, LLC, Louisiana – (Education)
Main Line Health Home Care and Hospice, Pennsylvania – (Education)
Northern Illinois Hospice, Illinois – (Education)
Pathways, Colorado – (Education)
Presbyterian Homes Hospice, Inc., Minnesota – (Education)
ProMedica Hospice, Ohio – (Education)
Providence TrinityCare Hospice, California – (Education)
Seasons Hospice, Minnesota – (Education)
Snowline Hospice, California – (Education)
Southwest Medical Hospice, Nevada – (Education)
St. Mary High Desert Hospice (formery Living Care Hospice, Inc.), California – (Education)
Tabitha Hospice , Nebraska – (Education)
The Elizabeth Hospice, California – (Education)
Topkare Hospice, Inc., California – (Education)
Trustbridge, Inc., Florida – (Education)
UnityPoint Hospice, Cedar Rapids, Iowa – (Education)
UnityPoint Hospice, Des Moines, Iowa – (Education)
Upland Hills Health Hospice, Wisconsin – (Education)
UVMHN Home Health & Hospice, Vermont – (Education)
Village Hospice, Missouri – (Education)
Visiting Nurse Association of NWI, Indiana – (Education)
Willamette Valley Hospice, Oregon – (Education)

Hospice programs that are not actively engaged in Quality Connections are missing out on a range of tools and resources that support a provider’s efforts to integrate continuous quality improvement throughout their organizations. More information about Quality Connections is available online.

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To learn more about hospice care or for information to help people coping with serious illness, please visit NHPCO’s CaringInfo.org.

Contact:
Jon Radulovic
NHPCO Communications
Ph: 571-412-3973

Immediate Release:
November 1, 2021

NHPCO Issues National Hospice and Palliative Care Month Proclamation 2021

November 2021 Marks a Month of Awareness and Outreach
for U.S. Hospice and Palliative Care Providers

(Alexandria, Va) – In recognition of November being National Hospice and Palliative Care Month, the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization has issued the following Proclamation calling for greater awareness and understanding of hospice care and community-based palliative care.

“This November, we once again take time to acknowledge National Hospice and Palliative Care Month. For many among the provider community, it will involve media engagement, others will focus on community outreach, still others will take time this month to celebrate colleagues and recognize their volunteers. All of these activities will raise awareness of the important work that is done every single day in communities across this nation to serve those with serious or life-limiting illnesses,” said NHPCO President and CEO Edo Banach. “With this thought in mind, NHPCO issues this proclamation for November 2021.”

PROCLAMATION

 WHEREAS, for more than 40 years, hospice has helped provide comfort and dignity to millions of people, allowing them to spend their final months at home, surrounded by the people important to them;

WHEREAS, the hospice model is built on an interdisciplinary, team-oriented approach to treatment and support, including expert medical care, quality symptom control, and comprehensive pain management as a foundation of care;

WHEREAS, beyond providing clinical treatment, hospice attends to the patient’s emotional, spiritual and social needs, and provides family services like caregiver training, respite care, and bereavement support;

WHEREAS, community-based palliative care, which delivers expertise to improve quality of life through pain and symptom control and other support, can be provided at any time during a serious illness, and given that hospice organizations are some of the best providers of community-based palliative care;

WHEREAS, in an increasingly fragmented and broken health care system, hospice is one of the few sectors that demonstrates how health care can – and should – work at its best for the people it serves;

WHEREAS, 1.61 million Medicare beneficiaries living with life-limiting illness and their families received care from the nation’s hospice programs* in communities throughout the United States in 2019;

WHEREAS, over the course of the last two decades, we have seen increasing access of hospice care by Black and Hispanic Medicare beneficiaries,* yet NHPCO recognizes that continued efforts to improve care to diverse communities is essential;

WHEREAS, data shows significant changes in patient diagnoses,* calling for innovation in how hospices provide care to those in need;

WHEREAS, hospice and palliative care organizations are advocates and educators about advance care planning that help individuals make decisions about the care they want;

NOW, THEREFORE, be it resolved that the Board of Directors of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, do hereby proclaim November 2021 as National Hospice and Palliative Care Month and encourage all Americans to increase their knowledge about person-centered, holistic care for all individuals facing serious and life-limiting illness, discuss their health care wishes with those they care about, and mark this month with appropriate learning and sharing.

* See NHPCO’s Facts and Figures Report (2021 edition).

Affirmed by the NHPCO Board of Directors
Alexandria, Virginia
November 1, 2021

More information about hospice, palliative care, coping with serious illness, advance care planning, and more is available from NHPCO’s consumer website, www.CaringInfo.org.

NHPCO encourages all individuals to participant in National Hospice and Palliative Care Month’s Social Media Action Day on Friday, November 5, 2021, to increase awareness about hospice and palliative care.

NHPCO members will find a range of National Hospice and Palliative Care Month outreach resources online in the Community Outreach Resource section of the website.

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Contact:
Jon Radulovic
Communications, Director
Ph: 571-412-3973

For Immediate Release:
October 28, 2021

Data Show Growing Number of People Choosing Hospice and Decreasing Number of Cancer Diagnoses

(Alexandria, Va) – The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) today published the 2021 edition of NHPCO Facts and Figures (PDF), a report produced annually to provide an overview of hospice care delivery in the U.S., with specific information on hospice patient characteristics, location and level of care, Medicare hospice spending, hospice provider characteristics, and more.

“In the nearly forty years that the Medicare hospice benefit has been in place, we’ve seen a significant shift in the primary diagnoses, how communities access care, length of service, and how hospice is made available,” said NHPCO President and CEO Edo Banach. “Next year we mark the 40^th anniversary of the passage of the Medicare hospice benefit legislation, and we must be actively planning for the next 40 years. The latest NHPCO Facts and Figures report is a resource for policymakers and healthcare leaders nationwide who are mapping the future of patient-centered, interdisciplinary care to help patients live life to its fullest right up to the end.”

NHPCO published Facts and Figures just prior to the start of National Hospice and Palliative Care Month, marked each year in November. On Friday, November 5, NHPCO is encouraging all hospice providers and supporters to participate in the annual Social Media Action Day to increase visibility of hospice and palliative care and share the benefits.

Key points from the report include the following:

Changing Primary Diagnoses

In 2019 we saw continued growth in the number of Medicare hospice patients with non-cancer diagnoses, including a principal diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, dementia, or Parkinson’s, which represented more than four times the number of patients who had cancer. For several decades, hospices primarily served people with cancer diagnoses. As recently as 2007, cancer continued to be the leading principal diagnosis of those receiving care. However, that has shifted dramatically over the last decade.

Reaching Diverse Communities

In 2019, almost 54 percent of white Medicare beneficiary decedents used hospice care (53.8 percent). Nearly 43 percent (42.7) of Hispanic Medicare beneficiary decedents and almost 41 percent (40.8) of Black Medicare beneficiary decedents enrolled in hospice in 2019. For the hospice community, which is committed to equity and access, these figures show significant progress over the last two decades as well as a need for continued improvement.

Late Hospice Access

Hospice professionals continue to be concerned about the number of people accessing hospice care late in the course of an illness. The NHPCO report indicates that 10 percent of Medicare decedents received hospice care for two days or less in 2019. Twenty-five percent of beneficiaries received care for five days or less, and 50 percent received care for 18 days or less. These very short stays in hospice are considered too short a period for patients to fully benefit from the unique person-centered, interdisciplinary care provided by hospice.

Growth in Hospice Utilization

1.61 million Medicare beneficiaries received hospice care in 2019, an increase of 3.9 percent from the previous year. Utilization of the hospice benefit remains slightly higher among individuals enrolled in Medicare Advantage (MA) plans than among traditional Medicare users, while the trendline for hospice usage continues to increase in both groups. MA enrollees who utilized the hospice benefit rose from 51.1 percent in 2015 to 53.2 percent in 2019. During the same period, traditional Medicare beneficiaries utilizing the hospice benefit rose from 47.6 percent of Medicare decedents in 2015 to 50.7 percent in 2019.

Additional Data Points

• • • 51.6 percent of all Medicare decedents were enrolled in hospice at the time of death in 2019.
    • The average Lifelong Length of Stay (LLOS) for Medicare patients enrolled in hospice in 2019 was 92.6 days. The Median Length of Service (MLOS) was 18 days, which has changed little in the last fifteen years.
    • Routine Home Care accounted for 98.3 percent of days of care provided. This includes care provided in the patient’s own home, an assisted living facility, nursing home, or other congregate living facility.
    • Over the course of 2019, there were 4,840 Medicare certified hospices in operation based on claims data. This represents an increase of 18.3 percent since 2014.

“This annual report provides a valuable snapshot of hospice access and care provision, but we never forget that behind the data points are people,” added Banach. “That’s why the hospices across the country work tirelessly to provide person- and family-centered, interdisciplinary care to help them during a time of great need.”

Download the new report, NHPCO Facts and Figures (PDF).

To learn more about hospice and care for those coping with serious illness, please visit NHPCO’s CaringInfo.org website.

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Contact:
Jon Radulovic
Communications, Director
Ph: 571-412-3973