Medical care
-
To understand how changes in Medicaid nursing home (NH) reimbursement policy and rates affect a NH's approach to end-of-life care (ie, its use of hospice). ⋯ This study supports and extends previous research by showing changes in Medicaid NH reimbursement policies affect a NH's approach to end-of-life care. It also shows how policy changes can have differing effects depending on a NH's urban/rural status.
-
The National Quality Forum (NQF) identified hospice services as a national priority area for health care quality improvement and endorsed a set of preferred practices for quality palliative and hospice care. This study reports the first national data regarding hospices' self-reported implementation of the NQF preferred practices and identifies hospice characteristics associated with more comprehensive implementation. ⋯ Hospices' reported implementation of individual preferred practices for palliative and hospice care quality was high; however, reported comprehensive implementation of preferred practices was rare and may be difficult to achieve for small, free-standing hospices.