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It’s back! Check out the revamped Hospice Professional Newsletter today. Subscribe to see it a day earlier. Click here to read the January Edition of The Hospice Professional.
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12:00 AM - New Hospice Social Worker Training Series
12:00 PM - The Critical Role of a Hospice Social Worker
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12:00 AM - The Days of "Muffin Marketing" Are Over
12:00 PM - The Assertive Social Worker on the IDT
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Medicare eligibility of live discharges remains a target area for CMS, so they should be an area of focus for all hospice agencies. Do staff understand the live discharge process, qualifications, and required documentation? Does your agency proactively manage and monitor the compliance complexities surrounding live discharges? Is your CAP and LOS an area of concern? Is your agency plagued with ADRs and patient eligibility issues? Is your HCI score adversely affected by burdensome transitions? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then the Live Discharges: How, When & Why Package will benefit your agency.
Part 1 will review the five types of allowable live discharges, how to proceed with each, the required documentation, and best practices to avoid problematic discharges. This program will evaluate the use of monitoring tools and reports for benchmarking and measuring compliance to prevent unwanted scrutiny. Learn best practices for live discharges, including working with frontline staff on hospice eligibility, which impacts live discharge statistics.

The hospice live discharge process is complex to understand and undertake. Due to length of stay and eligibility dilemmas, one in five patients could face an unexpected live discharge, with even higher chances for those with non-cancer diagnoses or for patients in for-profit hospices. This webinar will help staff differentiate between revocations and hospice-driven discharges. Ongoing eligibility, the live discharge process, discharge planning, avoiding burdensome transitions, and supporting the continuum of care will be reviewed. The session will educate staff about the live discharge process from beginning to end, including handling appeals, which occur frequently with long length-of-stay patients.
With increased CMS scrutiny, the Live Discharges: How, When & Why Package will answer frequently asked questions about when to live discharge, the impact on Medicare CAPs, reports to review, and how to avoid burdensome live discharges, which are detrimental to your agency’s HCI score.

An effective competency program can ensure all hospice staff is qualified, professional, and complies with all applicable regulations. This session will explain what a competency program is and how to develop and implement a simple, yet effective, organization-wide program. Competency programs decrease risks, improve customer satisfaction, enhance patient and agency outcomes, help prevent deficiencies, and improve hospice quality. Your staff is the heart of your hospice and a formal competency program will ensure they are at their best!

Do you know what social workers do? Are you sure? Is your answer consistent with national standards and how others describe social work? This three-part training series will cover the comprehensive role of the hospice social worker, clear up confusion regarding national standards and regulations, and explore what it means to be an assertive social worker. It will also outline advanced-level skill sets to help social workers move beyond “supportive” and provide high-level counseling and interventions to deliver personalized and quality care. If you are a hospice social worker, you don’t want to miss this highly informative series.

Do social workers play a prominent role in addressing pain and symptom management in your hospice? Do they regularly provide counseling for situations involving emotional distress and suicidal ideation utilizing specific theoretical frameworks? The role of the hospice social worker is comprehensive, and their work should always be informed by the most recent research and preferred practice standards. This webinar will delineate the work of the hospice social worker and link what they do to regulations and national standards.

The most successful hospice, home care, and personal care companies have evolved their marketing and referral development strategies as potential clients have become more sophisticated in what they seek. Unfortunately, many agencies still rely on cookies, muffins, and tchotchkes to drive business, as opposed to demonstrating value, executing a professional sales process, and asking for referrals. This webinar will provide the essential elements of creating a professional sales model and will outline the anatomy of successful referral development. Learn the required structures and processes, phraseology, and tools to drive more referrals, growth, and success.

Do you ever hear yourself or others say, “Social workers aren't appreciated or valued here"? If so, it may mean the team’s social workers need to adjust their approach to being an active member of the interdisciplinary team. Are people clear about your value? The best way to address this is to first serve as advocates for yourselves and your discipline. Clearly, being "aggressive" never works and it doesn’t work to just say, "You need to value us.” This webinar will focus on ways social workers can become more effective team members, become more effective at facilitating the interdisciplinary process, and serve as advocates for their role and for the complex psychosocial needs of patients and families. This program will cover common obstacles specifically related to the work of the hospice social worker, explore positive problem-solving, and how to become solution-focused in your approach to care.

The Hospice Final Wage Index and Payment Rule is chock-full of changes for 2024 and this webinar will analyze the updates and implementation specifics. Preparing for these changes is necessary, not optional! They include rate adjustments, numerous HQRP adjustments, and an update to the HOPE tool. This webinar should be required for all hospice staff to ensure compliance and adequate preparation.

In exploring the significance of skillful hospice social work practice, this webinar will examine what it means to provide a more advanced level of intervention – a higher level of skill and focus beyond entry-level training and skillsets. How is "counseling" defined and which theoretical frameworks are a good fit? How do social workers move beyond "support" when people are in high levels of psychosocial distress? What are the preferred practices related to suicidal ideation interventions? What are the best ways to work alongside challenging people/personalities? This webinar will cover higher-level skills and the social worker’s role in addressing more complex situations.

Hospice care is designed to be wholistic and interdisciplinary. Most hospices employ nurses, social workers, and chaplains to meet regulatory requirements. But all too often, spiritual care is an afterthought. The chaplain’s role in the IDG is often peripheral, position requirements are not always well-defined, and there may be few organizational resources dedicated to the support and development of this discipline. Yet, the religious, spiritual, and existential aspects of the dying process are profoundly important. How can you assess whether your hospice program is serving the spiritual needs of its clients? What are the markers of a well-developed spiritual care department? Learn how to help patients and families achieve a peaceful end-of-life closure, while increasing patient and family satisfaction, assisting service recovery, engaging with community partners, and retaining your best employees.