Monday, September 18, 2017: 1:45 PM-3:00 PM
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Faculty:
Todd Robert Cote, MD, FAAHPM, FAAFP
,Palliative Care Center of the Bluegrass, Lexington, KY
and
Eugenia Smither, RN, BS, CHC, CHE, CHP
,Bluegrass Care Navigators, Lexington, KY
A difficult challenge for hospice providers is how to approach the hospice patient that lives past their expected lives. Data shows 12%-15% of patients admitted to hospice services live past their "6 month or less" prognosis. CMS and government contractors continue to scrutinize "long length of stay" patients. This coincides with continued difficulty in predicting a prognosis for many types of patients using prognostication science. CMS "eligibility criteria lack scientific scrutiny and have not been well understood as "guidelines". It is important for hospice providers to understand how to utilize prognostication tools, ongoing guidelines and patient assessment tools. This session will discuss how to devlop and maintain a comprehensive eligibility/ certification/ recertification culture within your hospice. Developing strategy for discharging no longer eligible patients, or re-admitting patients who again become eligible, is an important process, particularly for patients living beyond their expected prognosis. The current regulatory environment challenges bascic concepts of prognostication and eligibility and it is critical hospice providers take a lead role in timely hospice service to our patients.
Learning Objectives:
1. Describe the similarities and differences between prognostication and hospice eligibility
2. Discuss regulatory scrutiny of hospice care for long length of stay patients and the varied approaches regulatory agents have toward the issue
3. Utilize appropriate hospice team education, tools, and process to assure high quality appropriate care for hospice eligible patients living past their expected prognosis