Overutilization? What Home Care Providers Need to Know About McAllen, Texas

Posted on 18. Jun, 2009 by Editor.

What’s so special about McAllen, Texas? Smart home care providers should make it their business to know.

A recent New Yorker article about health care utilization patterns in the Texas border town has become required reading for health reform wonks…

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Quality Outcomes Alert: Ask New Patients This Question

Posted on 17. Jun, 2009 by Editor.

Got oxygen?

That’s the question you should be asking new patients. Ever since Medicare tightened reimbursement rules for home oxygen therapy this past January, patients have had a heck of a time when they switch suppliers, The Wall Street Journal…

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Therapy Cap Update for HHAs

Posted on 17. Jun, 2009 by Editor.

GOOD NEWS! You don’t have to worry about therapy caps for patients who received outpatient Part B services in the first quarter of the year.

Due to delays in updating the claims system, “claims for outpatient therapy services provided during…

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Hospice Volunteer Quick Facts

Posted on 17. Jun, 2009 by Editor.

45.1 hours: That’s the average time a hospice volunteer racks up per year. The average yearly number of visits per year is 18, according to statistics from a National Hospice and Pallative Care Organization report.…

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New Research: Physicians Don’t Discuss Hospice with Terminally Ill Patients

Posted on 15. Jun, 2009 by Editor.

A new study published in the Archives on Internal Medicine confirms what many hospice professionals already know: doctors often fail to hold the crucial hospice conversation as patients near the end of life.

“Researchers interviewed 1,517 patients or their families four…

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