Eli's Hospice Insider

Will more inpatient availability help with feds’ concerns about GIP utilization?

Despite budgetary uncertainty ranging from possible Medicare cuts to wholesale payment reform — not to mention unflattering attention from the mainstream press — hospices continue to open facilities nationwide.

Hospices are often caught between a rock and a hard place when it comes to General Inpatient Care. On one hand, they get criticized for not furnishing the service often enough — something that contractor Abt Associates is looking into in its payment reform efforts (see Eli’s Hospice Insider, Vol. 8, No. 3). When the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services examined GIP data last year, it found 20 percent of hospices never billed a single day of GIP in the period reviewed (see Eli’s Hospice Insider, Vol. 7, No. 7). The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission notes in its latest report to Congress that in 2013, 21 percent of hospices didn’t furnish any GIP to patients (see related story, p. cover).

On the other hand, the HHS Office of Inspector General has slammed agencies for billing GIP unnecessarily. And in CMS’s review, it found 46 hospices that billed 10 percent or more of their days as GIP.

Some recent facility projects include:

In Connecticut: Regional Hospice and Home Care has opened a new inpatient facility in Danbury. The 12-bed unit expects to serve 1,000 patients annually, reports The Ridgefield Press.

Operation of the facility required changes in state law, notes the Hamlethub website.

In San Diego: Sharp HospiceCare has opened its six-bed BonitaView Home facility in Bonita, reports 7 San Diego NBC News. Sharp HospiceCare operates two other hospice residences in the area, in La Mesa and Del Cerro.

In Dallas: The Presbyterian Communities and Services Foundation says it has reached its $38.6 million fundraising goal for Phase One construction of Faith Presbyterian Hospice’s T. Boone Pickens Hospice and Palliative Care Center. The center will serve more than 1,800 patients a year and offer inpatient care, spiritual care, education and resources, and child and family bereavement, the foundation tells the Dallas News.

In Indiana: Hospice of the Wabash Valley has announced a $2 million campaign to build a new center at Union Hospital in Terre Haute. The eight-bed in-residence home care will be the first of its kind in Terre Haute. The hospice will build the inpatient unit in an unused wing of the hospital, reports WTHI-TV News. The agency hopes to begin construction in 2015.

In Missouri: BJC HealthCare plans to build a 32-bed hospice center on the campus of Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital in Creve Couer, reports the St. Louis Business Journal. That’s double the originally proposed size, notes the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

In Oregon: Cascade Health Solutions is planning a 12-bed, 15,000-square-foot hospice house on a 4.8-acre parcel, reports The Register-Guard. The non-profit had hoped to build a hospice house years ago, but neighbors of a seven-acre plot of land protested the usage. The case is still tied up in court.

In Illinois: Hospice of the Rock River Valley is kicking off a fundraising drive to build a $3.5 million hospice home on donated land. The hospice hopes to break ground on the six-bed unit this fall and open next year, reports saukvalley.com.