CMS opens Hospice Compare website
Joining other CMS sites covering hospitals, dialysis facilities and inpatient rehabilitation facilities is a new Hospice Compare website allowing patients and their families to compare more than 3,800 providers.
The new website offers searches based on the name of the hospice or by location. Patients and their families can also filter facilities based on the type of ownership. Providers can then be compared based on seven measures of hospice and palliative care endorsed by the National Quality Forum:
- Treatment preferences
- Whether beliefs or values are addressed
- Pain screening
- Pain assessment
- Shortness of breath screening
- Treatment for shortness of breath
- Patients taking opioid who were offered care for constipation
“The Hospice Compare website is an important tool for the American people and will help empower them in a time of vulnerability as they look for information necessary to make important decisions about hospice care for loved ones,” CMS Administrator Seema Verma, MPH, said in a statement. “The CMS Hospice Compare website is a reliable resource for family members and care givers who are looking for facilities that will provide quality care.”
Patients and their families will be able to compare up to three providers at a time.
John joined TriMed in 2016, focusing on healthcare policy and regulation. After graduating from Columbia College Chicago, he worked at FM News Chicago and Rivet News Radio, and worked on the state government and politics beat for the Illinois Radio Network. Outside of work, you may find him adding to his never-ending graphic novel collection.