NAHC One-Day Hospice Seminars:
Meeting the New Hospice CoPs: Will You Be Ready?

The new Medicare Hospice Benefit Conditions of Participation (CoP) released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on June 5, 2008 will be effective December 2, 2008. Hospices must begin now to prepare for the transition to the new CoPs.

This full day seminar will provide an in-depth review of the new CoPs and share ideas and tools on how to meet them. Attendees will receive valuable tools and resources essential to effective implementation of the new CoPs. Attendees can earn continuing education credit: Nurses 6.0 CEs and Accountants 7.0 CPEs.

Seminar Description:

Part I Subpart A – Definitions contains new and revised definitions of hospice caregivers and services. Subpart C – Conditions of Participation - Patient Care includes new patient’s rights requirements, timing and content of the initial and ongoing comprehensive patient assessments; interdisciplinary group care planning and coordination of services; new quality assessment and performance improvement standards; new infection control requirements; new hospice aide training and supervision standards; and required use of volunteers.

Objectives: Attendees will be able to:

• Discuss new patient’s rights CoP;
• Identify new requirements for initial and ongoing comprehensive patient assessments; and
• Discuss new quality assessment and performance improvement requirements.

Part II – Subpart D: Conditions of Participation – Organizational Environment will focus on new requirements for the Hospice Medical Director; acceptable clinical records; new standards for drugs and biologicals, medical supplies and DME; new standards for providing hospice services for residents of a SNF/NF or ICF/MR; new patient restraint reporting requirements; and new personnel qualifications.

Objectives: Attendees will be able to:

• Discuss the role of the Hospice Medical Director;
• Identify the new requirement for pharmaceutical management; and
• Discuss new regulations for caring for residents of SNFs/NFs;

Handouts: Seminar handouts will include:

1. A side-by-side comparison of the new CoPs to the current CoPs;
2. Developing the Plan of Care - initial assessment, comprehensive assessment and updating the comprehensive assessment;
3. Meeting new QAPI requirements;
4. NAHC’s Hospice QAPI tools and Satisfaction Surveys;
5. A listing of Policies and Procedures required under the new rules;
6. A primer on Contract Considerations for Hospice Providers under the new CoPs; and
7. A listing of “What To Do When You Get Home: Preparing for Implementation.”

Continuing Education Credit for Nurses and Accountants

The National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) is an approved provider (No. PN06-821-821) of continuing nursing education by the Maryland Nurses Association, an accredited approver by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. For questions please contact the Maryland Nurses’ Association at 410-944-5800.

NAHC is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. (Sponsor ID # 104616). In accordance with the standards of the National Registry of CPE Sponsors, CPE credits are based on a fifty (50) minute hour. State boards of accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of individual course for CPE credit. Complaints regarding registered sponsors may be addressed to the National Registry of CPE Sponsors 150 Fourth Avenue North, Suite 700, Nashville, TN or go to www.nasba.org

For information regarding administrative policies such as a complaint or refund, contact our offices at (202) 547-7424.

Susan Bruno, LCSW, ACSW, The Hospice Institute of the Florida Suncoast, Clearwater, FL. The Hospice Institute of the Florida Suncoast provides practice-based expertise in hospice by utilizing the resources and training experiences gathered over the past 30 years of providing end-of-life care and consultation.

Ken Burgess, J.D., a long-term-care attorney with over 20 years' experience helping providers understand and implement federal Medicare regulations as well as a frequent national lecturer and author; and Mike Hale , an attorney, a registered nurse, former in-house counsel with the largest hospice provider in North Carolina and a former hospice administrator. Both are with the law firm of Poyner & Spruill, LLP, Raleigh, NC.

Janet E. Neigh, Vice President for Hospice, National Association for Home Care & Hospice, Washington, DC. She has spent the past 20 years working with Congress and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on hospice issues. Neigh led NAHC efforts to influence the final language of the new Hospice CoPs and managed the NAHC Hospice QAPI Collaborative Project initiated to help hospices meet new requirements in the revised Hospice CoP.