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

Description

Live discharges are not just an operational detail. 

They are a closely watched Medicare signal that can directly impact your payments, your quality scores, and your agency’s standing. Do you know if your current processes would hold up under scrutiny? Join this presentation to receive a clear, compliant roadmap for all five allowable live discharges.

KEY WEBINAR TAKEAWAYS 

• The five allowable hospice live discharges per the Conditions of Participation
• Monitoring provider live discharge patterns and trends, including how agencies’ live discharges are monitored by CMS
• Where to obtain agency live discharge information (reporting)
• Benefits of a hospice live discharge process and which team members should be involved in best practices 
• Changes you can make to improve your agency’s hospice live discharge process
• Who is at risk for a higher percentage of hospice live discharges?

BONUS MATERIALS 

• Hospice Live Discharges Audit Tool
• CMS Hospice Monitoring Report – April 2026

WEBINAR DETAILS

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.

THIS WEBINAR WILL BENEFIT THE FOLLOWING AGENCIES:

• Hospice 

WHO SHOULD ATTEND? 

• Administrators
• Medical directors and hospice team physicians
• Directors of patient care services/Directors of clinical services
• Clinical management/hospice supervisors
• QA Directors/education directors
• Hospice case managers and field staff RNs
• Social work/counseling services
• Intake coordinators – hospice admission nurses

TAKE-AWAY TOOLKIT

• Employee training log
• Interactive quiz
• PDF of slides and speaker’s contact info for follow-up questions
• Attendance certificate provided to self-report CE credits

NOTE: All materials are subject to copyright. Transmission, retransmission, or republishing of any webinar to other institutions or those not employed by your institution is prohibited. Print materials may be copied for eligible participants only. 

Presented By

Kathy Ahearn

ALECC, Inc.