NHPCO NewsLine Winter 2021 - 10

continued
indicates that 10 percent of Medicare decedents received
hospice care for two days or less in 2019. Twenty-five
percent of beneficiaries received care for five days or less,
and 50 percent received care for 18 days or less. These very
short stays in hospice are considered too short a period
for patients to fully benefit from the unique personcentered,
interdisciplinary care provided by hospice.
Additional Data Points
51.6 percent of all Medicare decedents were enrolled in
hospice at the time of death in 2019.
The average Lifelong Length of Stay (LLOS) for Medicare
patients enrolled in hospice in 2019 was 92.6 days. The
Median Length of Service (MLOS) was 18 days, which has
changed little in the last fifteen years.
▌ Routine Home Care accounted for 98.3 percent of days
of care provided. This includes care provided in the
patient's own home, an assisted living facility, nursing
home, or other congregate living facility.
Table 4: Percent of Days by Spending
Level of Care (LOC)
Routine Home Care (RHC)
General Inpatient Care (GIP)
Inpatient Respite Care (IRC)
Continuous Home Care (CHC)
Source: FY 22 Hospice Wage Index, Proposed Rule, Table 5
▌ Medicare spending on hospice care.
Figure 14: Medicare Spending
▌ Over the course of 2019, there were 4,840 Medicare
certified hospices in operation based on claims data.
This represents an increase of 18.3 percent since 2014.
Figure 16: Providers by Type
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
2015
2016
2017
2018
■ For-profit ■ Nonprofit ■ Government
Source: MedPAC March Report to Congress, Various Years
2019
93.8%
4.9%
0.3%
0.9%
" This annual report provides a valuable
snapshot of hospice access and care
provision, but we never forget that
behind the data points are people, "
added Banach. " That's why the
hospices across the country work
$15.9B
$16.8B
$17.9B
$19.2B
$20.9B
tirelessly to provide person- and familycentered,
interdisciplinary care to help
them during a time of great need. "
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
Source: MedPAC March 2021 Report to Congress, Table 11-3 and MedPAC
March 2018 Report to Congress, Table 12-4.
Download the new report,
NHPCO Facts and Figures (PDF).
10
Newsline / Winter 2021
2019
https://careers.nhpco.org/ https://www.nhpco.org/wp-content/uploads/NHPCO-Facts-Figures-2021-edition.pdf
NHPCO NewsLine Winter 2021

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