Caring for the Animal Companions Left Behind: Pet Endowment Trust (PET) 

When a pet owner dies and nobody in the family wants the pet, they are either put down or dropped off at a shelter. It’s a sad scenario that plays out daily across the country. Pet estate planning stops pets from being euthanized or left homeless.

The mission of the Pet Endowment Trust (PET) is to help pet owners make plans should the unexpected happen. To accomplish our mission, we:

• Work with veterinarian associations and college veterinarian programs;
• Provide resources to organizations that offer legal estate planning;
• Assist animal welfare groups with pet planning; and, most recently
• Partner with hospice providers.

Making a difference can be as simple as asking a hospice client pet owner, “If something should happen to you, is there a plan in place for your pet?,” and directing them and their family to www.PetEndowment.org where they can find a simple DIY planning form. PET can also directly assist a pet owner with their planning needs.

PET would like to bring attention to hospice partners in the states served by HHAC, by sharing social media and print materials that name agencies as supporting partners. Opportunities for joint public awareness projects about pet planning are also available.

See https://www.petendowment.org/pet-hospice-and-nursing-care or reach out to us directly at [email protected]

With regards,

Kenne Smith - Executive Director                               409-651-9808
Linda Moon – Chief Operations Officer                    214-697-8019

Pet Endowment Trust (PET) is a 501c3 national non-profit animal welfare organization 

The First Year of Hospice VBID Is the Hardest for Payers

Hospice News | By Jim Parker

Implementation of the Medicare Advantage hospice carve-in has been challenging for both payers and providers, though a recent analysis indicates that it may get easier over time.

The U.S Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) commissioned the RAND Corp. to conduct the analysis of the program, formally called the hospice component of the value-based insurance design model (VBID). CMS launched the carve-in in 2021. The RAND analysis released this week covers the calendar year 2022.

The results suggest that the first year of participation is the hardest for both payers and providers.

“Hospices and new insurers reported substantial implementation challenges, but insurers with more than one year of experience with VBID reported fewer challenges, suggesting that implementation is becoming easier over time,” CMS indicated in a fact sheet.

In 2022, 13 insurance companies offered hospice VBID benefits through a total of 109 health plans. For more than half of these plans, 2022 was their first year of participation. The payer participants tended to be large national organizations with higher average plan enrollment, according to CMS. 

Payer companies reported greater challenges in 2022 than those who participated in 2021, according to the RAND report.

Among the top roadblockss for payers was the need to build out a network of hospice providers and development of payment contracts with those agencies. Another difficulty was the retooling of some administrative processes, including claims processing.

Hospice participants likewise encountered challenges when it came to claims processes as well as plans’ adjudication of denied claims, which they found to be time consuming and resource intensive. They also indicated that their payments from MA plans were often delayed, which put constraints on their cash flow.

However, hospices also reported that things became easier in their second year of participation compared to their first, CMS indicated…

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The ‘Strategic Trade-Offs’ Private-Pay Home Care Providers Are Making To Grow

Home Health Care News | By Joyce Famakinwa

As billing costs rise, private-pay home care leaders are trying to find ways to continue caring for as many seniors as possible. To do so, they are embracing new – and sometimes unique – strategies. 

At 24 Hour Home Care, there has been a move towards funded programs, as that cost of care has continued to increase.

“The cost of labor is through the roof, which means the cost of care is really challenging for us,” Ryan Iwamoto, president and co-founder of 24 Hour Home Care, said during a panel discussion at the Home Care Association of America (HCAOA) national conference on Monday. “As the cost of care has gone up, the cost of alternatives hasn’t gone up to the same clip as private-pay home care. That gap has gotten wider and wider.”

Los Angeles-based 24 Hour Home Care offers home care and intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) services across California and Arizona.

Iwamoto noted that 24 Hour Home Care still operates under a private-pay structure, but that working with other programs, like Medicaid-funded home- and community-based services, allowed the company to make more of an impact.

“By adding more breadth to our services, we can impact more lives, and not just for people that can afford it, but for people that may need it even more so,” he said.

For home care providers looking to scale, it’s important to make strategic trade-offs, according to Iwamoto.

“If you try to do everything, you’re not going to be able to do anything,” he said. “For us, it is [about] finding the things that worked well, the bright spots, and putting time and energy towards those bright spots,” he said.

Matt Kroll — president of personal care services at Bayada Home Health Care — believes that scaling private pay now is all about nailing the “business rhythms.”

“Specifically, understanding what our pricing strategy is, understanding what are the KPIs that matter,” he said during the panel discussion. “We still see huge demand. We just don’t want all of it. We realize that we’re much better at taking cases where they need 40 hours a week plus.”
Moorestown, New Jersey-based Bayada is a provider of home health, hospice and home care services. It has over 360 locations across 23 states and six other countries.

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Heartfelt Goodbye: How to Write and Deliver the Eulogy Your Loved One Deserves 

Heartfelt Goodbye is a concise how-to manual that guides the reader through the entire process of developing, putting together and giving a proper tribute at a funeral or memorial service. Reviewers on Amazon have said the book was easy to follow and covers all aspects of handling what can be a very difficult speech. 

Heartfelt Goodbye is available in both e-book and paperback versions on Amazon (https://amzn.to/3Q3U5ck) and in e-book version on other platforms https://books2read.com/u/m0WBNy) It can be a great recommended resource when counseling those have or soon will experience a loss.