Intensifying regulatory and media attention around fraudulent activity in the hospice space has exacerbated misconceptions about these services. The issue has challenged hospices’ ability to break down barriers that stymie stronger growth and improved access.
Fraudsters have spread a wealth of misinformation about the true nature of hospice care, according to James Dismond, CEO of MiraSol Health. Their unscrupulous tactics have confused and taken advantage of patients, their families and even other referring health care providers.
The program integrity issues have made it more difficult to combat long-existing common misunderstandings and mistrust, Dismond said during Hospice News’ annual ELEVATE conference in North Carolina.
“When they’re hearing about this fraud dialogue throughout the national media, it becomes even more scary to access a service that is already really hard to accept,” Dismond told Hospice News at ELEVATE. “How you talk about it is very, very important, because you’re naturally creating a barrier for care in your communities. We like to spin that conversation and really be more about the good care we’re providing and how we are good actors in the hospice space.”
Regulatory headwinds are among hospices’ most significant challenges in the near future, Dismond stated.
The negative backlash from the fraudulent activity has some hospices taking different approaches to community and referral outreach.
Diversification is key when it comes to referral outreach strategies, community collaboration and communication, as well as across service lines and hiring processes, according to Dr. Sonja Richmond, chief medical officer at Blue Ridge Care.
Hospices now more than ever have new opportunities to diversify and improve access, Richmond indicated. Standing out as a quality provider involves the ability to both understand and meet the unique needs of each community that a hospice serves, she said.
“We have an opportunity to look at quality internally, an opportunity to look at access and growth internally,” Richmond told Hospice News at the conference. “How do we stay aligned with the community and the culture and mirror that internally? We diversify our hiring; we diversify our outreach. We diversify every and all opportunity from the standpoint of aligning ourselves with patients, clinicians and referral sources upstream … We have an opportunity to create our own narrative and message behind it.”
How a hospice prepares for and responds to regulatory scrutiny has become an important part of reputation-building both among staff and the community, said Rexanne Domico, president and CEO of Interim HealthCare.
Program integrity issues have providers facing increased documentation burden alongside more rigorous auditing and changes to their quality reporting requirements. Staff need to understand the “why” behind regulatory evolutions through ongoing education, which can strengthen retention, Domico said. Also significant is being transparent about quality outcomes, she added.
“Our words do matter and the conversation is incredibly important,” Domico told Hospice News at ELEVATE. “From a regulatory perspective, what’s coming at us is the additional scrutiny [and] it’s how do you get prepared for those things? Regulatory challenges are here to stay, but if you approach it the right way, you have a lot more comfort. Preparedness is really important. We try to look at trends and figure it out … getting better educated. What is our presence, what is our message and what are we delivering in terms of the standards?”
