Helping Consumers Choose: Medicare’s Consumer-Focused Quality Measures Place Crossroads Hospice among Top Industry Performers

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Managed Care Weekly Digest -- It's no surprise that the final days of a patient's life are when families often feel the greatest need for support from a hospice provider (see also Crossroads Hospice & Palliative Care).

In fact, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) recently identified hours spent during the final days as among the key quality measures the agency gathers to provide consumers with a way to compare the quality of care offered by hospice providers.

What may be more surprising is that according to the CMS findings, Crossroads Hospice & Palliative is one of only four providers that increase care during the final days.

The findings contradict a popularly held belief that nonprofits inherently provide superior services to patients, according to Perry Farmer, President and CEO of Tulsa, OK-based Crossroads Hospice.

The report is based on data compiled from approximately 4,000 hospice sites nationwide. Under the auspices of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), CMS in 2014 began reporting on various quality measures established to provide greater transparency and insights for consumers about how hospices perform against one another.

Two of the newest quality measures are the amount of daily hours of care given to patients, and the amount of hours of care given during the last seven days of life.

According to Farmer, these measures are particularly important because they are an indication as to whether or not hospice staff will be present for patients and families during their time of greatest need.

"Crossroads scored at or near the top, on both measures," Perry said. "On average, Crossroads provides two-and-a-half times more care in the last seven days than other hospices. In fact, Crossroads was one of only four among the top 23 hospice programs in the nation that actually increase the amount of care provided during the last seven days."

Meanwhile, according to CMS data, nonprofit hospice programs average an 18 percent decrease in the level of patient care during the last seven days.

"We were pleased, but not surprised, by the results of this analysis," said Farmer. "We believe it is a tribute to the commitment that our professional staff exhibits every day, as well as Crossroads' highly patient-centric approach."

"We had two basic principles when we began Crossroads Hospice in 1995 - 'You shouldn't die in pain' and 'You shouldn't die alone,'" Perry said.

Since then, Crossroads has implemented programs to ensure patients are continually monitored for changes in condition and to ensure that Crossroads staff is present when patients and families are most in need of care and comfort.

"We welcome the development of an impartial, transparent system to help consumers evaluate hospice providers," Perry said. "While we recognize that this is still evolving, we are very happy and proud to see these early results."

Crossroads Hospice & Palliative Care is committed to being at the forefront of the hospice care industry, to continually shape the way end-of-life care is viewed and administered. The mission of Crossroads is to provide highly unique, comprehensive, and compassionate hospice services to persons experiencing a life-limiting illness and to their caregivers. Visit www.crossroadshospice.com for more information. NOTE TO EDITORS: To speak with Perry Farmer about the CMS quality measures for hospices, please contact Thomas Derr at SPRYTE Communications: [email protected] or 215.545.4715 x29 (o) or 215.620.7723 (m) View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170222005204/en/

Keywords for this news article include: Medicare, Health Policy, Crossroads Hospice & Palliative Care.

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