Naomi Judd to open national hospice palliative care conference in October

Naomi Judd will be the honored opening plenary speaker at NHPCO’s upcoming Clinical Team Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, October 27 – 29, 2014.

At the opening plenary presentation on October 27, the celebrated Naomi Judd will present, “Surviving and Thriving in Challenging Times” at the opening session of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organizations 15^th annual Clinical Team Conference and Pediatric Intensive being held at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center.

Naomi Judd knows a thing or two about surviving and thriving through challenges. Using her own touching personal stories and unique brand of humor, Naomi will share her journey of being both a patient (as a Hepatitis C survivor) and a caregiver (as a former nurse early in her life).

From humble beginnings as a single mom in a small Kentucky town to her meteoric rise as a country music superstar and American icon, Naomi Judd’s incredible lifelong journey is an inspiring story of overcoming the odds through optimism and hard work, first known to the world as half of country music’s mother/daughter duo, The Judds. Reaching unprecedented success throughout the 80’s and 90’s, The Judds sold 20 million records, scored fifteen #1 hits and received over sixty industry awards including six Grammy’s, seven consecutive CMS Vocal Group of the Year awards and ACM’s Top Vocal Duet award.

As the pinnacle of their career, Naomi was stricken with Hepatitis C, a potentially fatal chronic liver disease, incurred from an infected needle when she worked as a registered nurse, cutting short her musical career and forcing her into retirement to battle the disease.

Today, Naomi is a survivor of Hepatitis C and uses her fame, her experience as a former RN and her passion to reach and help people in a variety of mediums including public speaking, film, television and radio shows, including her six-week SiriusXM radio series, “Think Twice” which aired the summer of 2012, and authoring seven books which include two New York Times best-sellers. Meanwhile, Naomi also continues her humanitarian efforts.

On-site conference registration is available for single day passes, the full conference, and preconference seminars (October 25 – 26). Visit the CTC registration desk at the Gaylord Opryland Convention Center. For more information on the CTC and educational offerings, see the Clinical Team Conference information online.

(Online registration  with a reduced registration fee is available through October 2, 2014.)

NHPCO Applauds Passage of the IMPACT Act

Hospice provisions added to the Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation Act of 2014 (IMPACT Act) will create increased transparency within the hospice community.

This week, the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate passed the Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation Act of 2014 (IMPACT Act), legislation which includes hospice integrity provisions that are backed by the hospice community.  The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (www.nhpco.org) supports this legislation and the additional oversight it will bring to end-of-life care providers.

The IMPACT Act (H.R. 4994) requires more frequent surveys of hospice providers – a measure the hospice community NHPCO has championed for more than a decade. The bill mandates that all Medicare certified hospices be surveyed every three years for at least the next ten years.

A 2007 HHS Office of the Inspector General report found that current survey measures for Medicare-certified hospices was not providing sufficient oversight.

“Currently, hospices can go eight years or more without ever being surveyed, which is far too long,” said J. Donald Schumacher, NHPCO president and CEO. “More consistent surveys, and the process providers go through to prepare for them, will help hospices and ultimately benefit the patients and families in their care.”

Additionally, the new legislation will facilitate medical reviews for select hospice programs with a soon to be determined percentage/number of patients receiving care for more than 180 days. The specific patient load that would trigger this medical review is yet to be set by CMS.

Such a medical review of what are known as “long stay” patients will help ensure that hospices are appropriately caring for individuals with life-limiting illnesses that are often harder to prognosticate than in the earlier days of hospice provision when most patients had a cancer diagnoses.

NHPCO has supported this provision since it was originally recommended by MedPAC in 2009.

The legislation also includes a provision that would align hospice reimbursement and the hospice aggregate financial cap to a common inflationary index.

“Under NHPCO’s leadership, the hospice community has been on the frontlines of advocating for increased transparency, program integrity, and accountability. We believe that the hospice provisions included in the IMPACT Act are critically important steps in this direction,” stressed Schumacher.

NHPCO reports that more than 1.5 million dying Americans receive care for the nation’s hospice providers every year.