Summer’s the perfect time to sharpen your skills and expand your knowledge of emerging economic and policy changes that will affect hospice operations nationwide. This session, geared toward intermediate to advanced hospice executives, will provide an updated overview of the financial aspects of hospice –everything you need to better manage your financial operations in the changing hospice and health care landscape. Session topics include:
The Changing World of Hospice: An Overview. This session sets the context for the day’s discussion with an in-depth examination of recent and pending hospice policy changes that are driving transformation in hospice programs. Topics include: key elements of the proposed FY2017 payment rule and implications of recommendations put forth by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and Congress.
Hospice Financial Accounting, Cost Reporting, and Monitoring/Reporting the Aggregate Cap. The expansive new cost reporting requirements that are being phased in for all types of hospices demand that agencies collect significantly more detailed cost data and report it by level of care. This session will explore the new cost reporting requirements and their implications for hospice financial accounting, as well as identify areas where new calculations and special workarounds are needed. This session also examines recent changes affecting the Cap year and annual updates to the aggregate Cap, requirements related to calculation and reporting of the Cap, and the why and how of monitoring your aggregate Cap status throughout the year.
Monitoring Your Financial Operations. “Business as usual” of years past in hospice has been upended by a vast number of recent policy changes and a rapidly changing health care delivery system. Additional changes are on the horizon, so there’s no better time to ensure that you have a solid sense of your cost, your revenues, and how your current financial performance compares with your recent past performance and with the hospice industry generally. This session provides an in-depth discussion of how to successfully monitor your hospice’s financials, incorporate thoughtful expense containment strategies, and foster increased productivity, as well as methods for engaging employees at all levels to make your hospice’s financial success a shared organizational objective.
Key Hospice Vulnerabilities. Even when a hospice has obtained the CTI timely, with the right signatures and a comprehensive narrative supporting a terminal condition, payment can be denied because the attestation statement on the CTI is not clear or in the proper location. A renewed focus on requirements essential for the processing of hospice claims, new regulatory requirements and increased oversight/monitoring of hospice practices and processes create significant potential for financial loss. This session examines areas under scrutiny by CMS, the MACs, and others and provides suggestions for compliant practices and internal oversight. Topics covered include the technical components required to support hospice claims, eligibility, length of stay, use of General Inpatient Care, and plans of care.