Hospice News and Research

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New website provides access to hospice care

Hospice Care of South Carolina, the largest hospice care provider in South Carolina, recently launched a new website designed to help people facing an advanced illness and their loved ones gain earlier access to hospice care.

19 Oct 2010

Costs for end-of-life care rising, hospice care may be an antidote

Health care costs at the end of life show no signs of leveling off, according to new research from the United States and Canada published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

15 Oct 2010

GSA and NAM select journalists for new MetLife Foundation Journalists in Aging Fellows Program

The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) and New America Media (NAM) have selected 15 journalists for the new MetLife Foundation Journalists in Aging Fellows Program. They represent a wide range of traditional, new, and ethnic media, such as USA Today, Sing Tao Daily, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and TheAtlantic.com.

14 Oct 2010

Study examines health-care costs among heart failure patients in Canada

As the population ages, health care epidemiologist Padma Kaul and cardiologist Paul Armstrong, researchers in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta, want health-care professionals to talk to their patients about their options on places to die, whether it be at home, in hospital or a palliative care facility like hospice.

13 Oct 2010

Challenges in provision of high-quality health care at end of life

Health care in the last six months of life has become progressively more expensive for patients with heart failure both among Medicare beneficiaries in the United States and older adults in Canada, with a high rate of hospitalizations in the final six months of life in both countries, according to two reports posted online today that will be published in the February 14 print issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

12 Oct 2010

Most men with prostate cancer not referred to hospice care early enough

More than half of men dying of prostate cancer use hospice care - a significant increase over the last two decades - but most wait too long to enroll so they can't take full advantage of the palliative care that could make their deaths easier, a study by researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center found.

12 Oct 2010

NHPCO releases report on hospice care in U.S

An estimated 41.6 percent of all people who died in the U.S. last year were under the care of a hospice program, reports the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (up from 38.8 percent in 2008 and 35 percent in 2007).

6 Oct 2010

Delta Health introduces ClinicalVirtuoso solution to optimize homecare therapist

In response to the growing homecare and therapy markets, and the importance of "aging-in-place" as an alternative solution to institutionalized care, Delta Health Technologies, LLC today announced the introduction of ClinicalVirtuoso the first clinical solution developed to optimize the homecare therapist.

5 Oct 2010

Terminal metastatic cancer effectively treated in mice

Terminal metastatic cancer - the presently untreatable cause of the great majority of all cancer deaths - has now been effectively treated in three common fatal cancers in mice, announced Genomic Systems, citing research published online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS).

5 Oct 2010

Telemedicine can help address mental health needs of elderly homebound individuals

Studies have shown a high rate of depression among elderly homebound individuals, and few patients receive adequate treatment, if any. To address this issue, researchers at Rhode Island Hospital and other organizations have developed a telemedicine-based depression care protocol in home health care.

4 Oct 2010

Hundreds of experts including Nobel laureates say Medicare's bidding system for durable medical equipment will fail

Medicare's bidding program for durable medical equipment will fail, say 166 leading experts on auctions and competitive bidding systems.

1 Oct 2010

RN expert provides an overview on healthcare quality measurement

Students at Louisiana State University today heard an executive with Baton Rouge-based Amedisys talk about how quality is measured in health care and why it should matter to all Americans. Amedisys is the largest home health care and hospice company in the U.S., providing care to more than 35,000 patients every day.

1 Oct 2010

HealthWyse secures patent for Remote Personnel Tracking program to prevent Medicare fraud

HealthWyse, a leading provider of home health and hospice agency automation software, announced today that it has secured a patent for its Remote Personnel Tracking program to help homecare agencies keep track of their employees and prevent Medicare fraud. HealthWyse will showcase its Remote Personnel Tracking Program at the National Association for Home Care and Hospice (NAHC) 29th Annual Meeting & Exposition, held October 2 - 6 in Dallas, Texas.

28 Sep 2010

Disenrollment from hospice increases costs of care for cancer patients

Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have found that the costs of care for patients with cancer who disenrolled from hospice were nearly five times higher than for patients who remained with hospice. Patients who disenroll from hospice are far more likely to use emergency department care and be hospitalized. The results are published in the October 1 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

24 Sep 2010

La. doctors work from scratch to rebuild local health system; Mich. A.G. sues Blue Cross Blue Shield over rate changes; Wis. health programs make hefty budget request

PBS Newshour: The Newshour Health Unit, in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, explores how doctors in Louisiana "are dealing with the unique challenge of reshaping a health care system that was badly damaged." Dr. Karen DeSalvo, vice dean for Community Affairs and Health Policy at Tulane University, said the response was like creating "health care in the wild. There was nothing."

18 Sep 2010

Caregivers at higher risk for PTSD when cancer patients die in hospital

Cancer patients who die in the hospital or an intensive care unit have worse quality of life at the end-of-life, compared to patients who die at home with hospice services, and their caregivers are at higher risk for developing psychiatric illnesses during bereavement, according to a study by researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

16 Sep 2010

Milwaukee sees fast rise in costs of benefits; N.J. Gov. outlines cuts to public workers' benefits; Hawaii teachers file suit over health changes

"The cost of health benefits appears to be rising at a much faster pace in the Milwaukee area than the national average. Employers reported that the cost of health benefits increased 11% to 13% on average in the Milwaukee area this year, according to the 2010 Greater Milwaukee Employer Health Care Benefits Survey

16 Sep 2010

Guidance allowing children with life-limiting illness to receive both hospice care and curative treatments praised

The families of dying children who are covered under Medicaid or the Medicaid expansion Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) will no longer face the choice of stopping curative treatments in order for their terminally ill child to receive quality end-of-life care from hospice.

14 Sep 2010

HealthWyse, Cardiocom partner to integrate patient information into clinical software

HealthWyse, a leading provider of home health and hospice software and services, announced today that it has partnered with Cardiocom, a leader in home telehealth solutions, to seamlessly integrate patient information into HealthWyse's clinical software.

13 Sep 2010

CMS issues hospice benefit guidance for terminally sick kids

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released a guidance Thursday regarding a health overhaul mandate that state Medicaid programs allow terminally ill kids to get curative treatment even if they take hospice benefits, The Hill's Healthwatch Blog reports.

10 Sep 2010