Hospice Live Discharges: The Who, What, When & How

Hospice live discharges are among the most scrutinized events in hospice care because they directly affect patient continuity, Medicare compliance, and agency documentation. Understanding CMS requirements for live discharge helps organizations reduce regulatory risk, support appropriate discharge planning, and maintaining high-quality patient care.

Medicare anticipates that each hospice provider will experience live discharges, and monitors providers’ percentage of live discharges closely. This can constitute a reason for suspension of Medicare payments when providers experience greater than average percentages of hospice live discharges.

There are five allowable live discharges within the Medicare hospice benefit. In this presentation we will walk through each of them — the requirements, documentation, and process each provider must follow. Hospice provider quality scores plus additional reports reflect live discharges; therefore, it is imperative to understand how you are monitored in order to implement best practices with the live discharge process. Best practices, reviewing trends, reports, avoiding “risky” admissions, and how to improve overall agency quality standings will be addressed.