After building a future carve-in into hospice strategic planning since the demonstration program was announced in 2019, now all of us in the field are trying to quickly re-think. The first questions for many providers of hospice and palliative care are, why this sudden change, and what does this mean for the future of our field? At first blush this may seem unalloyed good news for providers facing negative margins and tremendous competitive pressures…
Read MoreMedicare Accountable Care Organizations have given limited attention to end-of-life care up to now. But that may be about to change. In December 2018 Medicare announced sweeping changes to the structure and incentives of the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP). We at Schramm Consulting believe that the changes will enforce greater cost discipline for ACO owners and may offer greater opportunities to hospice and palliative care providers than they’ve enjoyed up until now.
Read MoreThere’s been so much ink spilled about the financial risks of hospice facilities (some of it written by me, I admit) that you too, might be surprised to learn how much activity there is in the U.S. around building, expanding and re-formulating hospice facility beds. But hospice beds continue to be a critically important part of the provision of quality hospice care. It's true that successfully planning a hospice facility is more complex than in years past. Whereas in the 1990s many hospice facilities opened to greater than expected demand and high occupancy rates, these days a provider must be very careful to calibrate the likely demand to the number of beds built and staffed.
Read MoreHave you ever worried that your Board of Directors focuses too much on day-to-day details versus big picture vision and strategy? Has an employee tried to go around you as Executive Director/CEO to address a personnel or operational issue directly with a Board member? If you've confronted these situations, you are not alone! In fact, it's very common for non-profit leaders to wrestle with the blurring of governance versus management roles.
Read MoreOne of the challenges for hospice and palliative leaders has always been that their services were seen as a small part of the healthcare continuum. Over and over, I’ve had hospice CEOs and administrators tell me their greatest frustration was getting the time of day from hospital and health system execs. Lately, however, I’m not hearing that as much. Instead, I hear clients and friends telling me their local system seems interested in post-acute care in a new way.
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