Educate aides about steps they can take to keep patients out of the hospital

Aides can be an integral part of preventing hospitalizations, but they are often left out of an agency’s interdisciplinary team. A new, free online course from the Home Health Quality Improvement (HHQI) National Campaign will help educate aides about how to reduce avoidable hospitalizations.

Study finds older Americans filing for bankruptcy at high rate

A new study available at SSRN shows that older Americans are struggling with increased financial risks, namely inadequate income and unmanageable costs of healthcare. The study concludes that the increasing baby boomer population entering into old age does not alone account for the significant rise in older Americans filing for bankruptcy.

Resources for a smooth transition to PDPM

As SNF and nursing home providers familiarize themselves with CMS’ new Patient Driven Payment Model (PDPM), The Bottom Line and Post-Acute Advisor are here to keep you educated and up to date on the latest resources, guidance, and best practices as they are made available. Here are this week’s helpful resources for you to add to your PDPM toolkit.

Hospices’ scores on Hospice Item Set measures

Among the seven Hospice Item Set (HIS) measures posted on Hospice Compare, providers once again improved the most on “Hospice and palliative care pain assessment” during the August 2018 refresh.

Free webinar on PDPM

The Patient-Driven Payment Model (PDPM) is designed to replace the current SNF payment methodology known as RUG-IV. The effective date of the change (from resource utilization groups to PDPM) is October 1, 2019. PDPM, as an outgrowth of the initially proposed resident classification system version 1 (RCS-1) and received commentary, is a simplified payment model designed to be more holistic in patient assessment, to capture more clinical complexity, to eliminate or greatly reduce the therapy focus on reimbursement, and to simplify the assessment process and schedule. This 30 minute session will explain the elements of PDPM and provide tips for participants to prepare for the transition from RUG-IV to PDPM. Register here.