Let’s face it, healthcare is ever evolving. But providing high quality, compassionate care has consistently been our agency’s focus for more than 44 years. Over the years, healthcare providers have been asked to meet many requirements for insurance reimbursement, with increased and there is increasing scrutiny on the care and services provided.
Good! As the lead clinical person at Hospice of Northwest Ohio, I know that every clinical decision must be rooted in quality and compliance. We rely heavily on firm policies to guide the agency in reducing risks and delivering on our mission.
Medicare has attempted to coerce compliance through bonus reimbursements and public reporting. In reality, Medicare just wants hospice agencies to do the right thing. They want hospices to be clear about the services that they provide at the beginning of care to meet the holistic approach that is the foundation of hospice. They want hospices to increase the frequency of their visits as patients decline and especially want them to be present at the end of life, when the patients and families are at their most vulnerable.
Everyone should be striving to meet all of the Medicare guidelines and The Joint Commission standards because they have provided us with the template for outstanding care. When you couple those guidelines with putting the patient and family at the forefront of decisions, and unparalleled caring clinicians, excellence can be achieved. I am blessed to work at an agency where “What is the right thing to do for the patient?” is repeated daily.