Hospice in Nursing Home/Facility

OIG Publications on Hospice Care
Four Part OIG Report on Hospice Care in the Nursing Home, September 2009:

Hospice Care in the Nursing Home Offers Benefits to Residents at End of Life (09/29/09)
Medicare Hospice Care for Beneficiaries in Nursing Facilities: Compliance with Medicare Coverage Requirements (report #OEI-02-06-00221) September 8, 2009. (PDF)
Medicare Hospice Care: Services Provided to Beneficiaries Residing in Nursing Facilities (report #OEI-02-06-00223) September 8, 2009. (PDF)
Memorandum Report: Hospice Beneficiaries’ Use of Respite Care (report #OEI-02-06-00222) March 31, 2008. (PDF)
Medicare hospice Care: A Comparison of Beneficiaries in Nursing Facilities and Beneficiaries in Other Settings (report #OEI-02-06-00220) December 2007. (PDF)
Supplemental Compliance Program Guidance for Nursing Facilities: This document contains recommendations for nursing facilities and has a section on hospice care in the nursing facility.

Other OIG Publications on Hospice Care:

Medicare Hospices: Certification and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Oversight (#OEI-06-05-00260) April 2007. (PDF)
Medicare Hospice Beneficiaries: Services and Eligibility (#OEI-04-93-00270) April 1998. (PDF)
Hospice and Nursing Home Contractual Relationships (#OIE-05-95-00251) November 1997. (PDF)
Hospice Patients in Nursing Homes (#OEI-05-95-00259) September 1997. (PDF)

Fraud and Abuse in Nursing Home Arrangements with Hospices - Special Fraud Alert, March 1998.

NHPCO Member Resources

The Hospice Operations page offers a range of materials for NHPCO Members. These include:

Questionable Practices by Hospices and Nursing Homes Under Health Care Fraud and Abuse Rules
Contracting with a nursing facility: Hospice and Nursing Home/Assisted Living Contracting Toolkit
Room & board pass through (PDF)
NHPCO Comments on SNF Benefit
CMS Memo on Promising Practices for Implementing the Medicare Hospice Benefit for Nursing Home Resident
The Skilled Nursing Facility Prospective Payment System Fact Sheet: Medicare Learning Network
Medicare long term care state operations manual
Life Safety Code
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) links to Life Safety Code compliance requirements. This compliance is necessary for inpatient facilities.
CMS's Life Safety Code Compliance
OSHA's Life Safety Code Compliance

Nursing Home End-of-Life Care:
The Nursing Home/Hospice Partnership

Successful collaborations are partnerships where care planning, coordination and provision are performed in care environments where:

Mutual respect dominates;
Providers routinely share knowledge; and
Policies and procedures clarify the roles of each collaborating party; but,
Much unwritten, and importantly, hospice presence, consistency and communication are key – a customer service approach facilitates success.

Partnership Resources:

Susan C. Miller, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
Center for Gerontology and Health Care Research
Brown University, Box G-ST
Providence, RI 02912
Ph: 401/863-9216
Susan_Miller@Brown.edu