Literature Review

CMS proposes Medicare Advantage rate cutBecker's Payer Issues, by Rylee Wilson; 1/31/24CMS proposed a slight decrease in Medicare Advantage benchmark payments for 2025. The agency issued its proposed 2025 rate notice Jan. 31, cutting benchmark payments by 0.2% on average. Risk model revision will amount to a 2.45% decline in revenue, according to a fact sheet issued by the agency. Plans should expect to see 3.7% higher revenue overall, with an MA risk score trend of 3.86% — the average increase in risk adjustment payments year over year — offsetting risk model revisions and a projected decline in star rating bonuses.

Private equity’s growing footprint in home health care draws scrutinyAlabama Reflector, by Anna Claire Vollers; 1/31/24Critics point to Help at Home’s departure from Alabama as a cautionary tale for what can happen when states that spend little on health care rely on private equity-owned providers to care for their most vulnerable residents.

What happens to the pets of local hospice patients?InterReviewed, by Mercedez Hernandez; 2/1/24Nonprofit organizations dedicated to finding homes for animals say there is a great need for these services when a pet owner is experiencing their final moments in hospice care. Kerrvile Pets Alive recently rescued Gracie, a 9-year-old tabby cat whose owner was about to die in hospice. Karen Guerriero, president of the nonprofit’s board of directors, said the agency works directly with Peterson Health Hospice in Kerrville to accommodate pets when requested, as in Gracie’s case.

Lee County belt tightening means a reduction in hospice careWIUM Trstates Public Radio, by Will Buss; 2/1/24Lee County Supervisors are looking for ways to reduce spending. As a result, the health department is scaling back the level of hospice care it provides terminally ill residents. Administrator Michele Ross said the department has pushed to retain hospice service but will refer more residents to private providers.

Medical records specialists reach higher ground in healthcareAAPC News, by Michelle Dick; 2/1/24AAPC's 2024 Medical Coding and Billing Salary Report reveals that, as unemployement rates slide down, salaries climb to new heights. ... AAPC’s 2024 Medical Coding and Billing Salary Report shows the largest year-to-year salary increases across the board in the history of the Salary Survey. 

Electronic visit verification will become industry standard in the near future, expert predictsMcKnights Home Care, by Adam Healy; 2/2/24As state Medicaid programs’ adoption of electronic visit verification (EVV) continues to grow, the technology is poised to become the norm for all of home-based care, a marketplace executive says. “For the first time in the history of this industry, you have real-time access to the caregiver in the home,” noted Stephen Vaccaro, president of home care software firm HHAeXchange, in an interview with McKnight’s Home Care Daily Pulse. “States are now starting to look at this and say, ‘What’s next?’”

A pathophysiological approach for selecting medications to treat nociceptive and neuropathic pain in servicemembersMil Med, by Khan Thi Nguyen, Daniel W Beauchamp, Reginald B O'Hara; 1/31/24The prevalence of chronic pain of service members (SMs) in the U.S. is estimated to be higher (roughly 31-44%) compared to that of civilian population (26%). This higher prevalence is likely due to the high physical demands related combat and training injuries that are not immediately resolved and worsen over time. Mental Health America reports that chronic pain can lead to other mental health conditions such as severe anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Cancer facts & figures 2024American Cancer Society; 2024Cancer Facts & Figures 2024 is an educational companion for Cancer Statistics 2024, a scientific paper published in the American Cancer Society journal, CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. These annual reports provide:

Palliative care use trends, racial/ethnic disparities, and overall survival differences among patients with metastatic breast cancerJ Palliat Med, by Jincong Q Freeman, Olasubomi J Omoleye, Fangyuan Zhao, Dezheng Huo; 2/1/24Conclusions: Palliative care utilization among MBC [Metastatic Breast Cancer] patients significantly increased but remained suboptimal. Racial/ethnic minority patients were less likely to use palliative care, and Black patients had worse survival, than White patients, suggesting the need for improving palliative care access and ameliorating disparities in MBC patients.

Home health industry’s technology partners continue racing toward AIHome Health Care News, by Joyce Famakinwa; 2/1/24Artificial intelligence is likely to be a hot topic in home-based care over the next few years. With that in mind, most companies in the space are already adjusting. Post-acute technology company WellSky, for instance, has partnered with Google Cloud to leverage its artificial intelligence (AI) platform, Vertex AI. The partnership also includes Google Cloud’s secure cloud technologies, advanced data analytics tools and machine learning capabilities.

These sisters help families donate brains to scienceBrain&Life; 2/2/24Tish Hevel, 65, talks about the Brain Donor Project, a nonprofit group she and her sister, Annie McManis, 54, established after their father died of Lewy body dementia. ... "Our father was diagnosed with Lewy body dementia in 2014. In researching the disease, we kept reading about brain donation. Our father had always wanted to donate his body, so we knew he would want to donate his brain as well. And we knew scientists needed tissue. But the process of donating was complicated."

What home health providers need to know about CMS’ Medicare enrollment changesHome Health Care News, by Patrick Filbin; 1/31/24The Medicare enrollment process undergoes annual changes at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to ensure it remains up to date with evolving regulations, policies and health care practices. A number of changes went into effect on Jan. 1, and several of them will affect home health agencies. Here’s what home health agencies should know about those changes.