Skip to main content
Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Hospice and palliative care

Palliative Care in California: Narrowing the Gap
Reports on a survey of palliative care programs in California. Includes interactive maps with county-level data on the need for and capacity of palliative care services.
Author(s): Kathleen Kerr
Date: 06/2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: California Health Care Foundation
view details
Telehomecare Monitoring Services: Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems VNA Home Health Hospice
Discusses the development, impact, lessons learned, and future goals of a telehealth home health and hospice monitoring program for a healthcare system in rural Maine.
Date: 04/2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: American Hospital Association
view details
MedPAC Report to the Congress: Medicare Payment Policy, 2018
Annual review of Medicare payment policies, with recommendations to Congress. Includes discussion on Medicare payment policies directly affecting rural providers and beneficiaries. Addresses Medicare Part D, Medicare Advantage, telehealth, payment incentive programs, and payment adequacy for healthcare facilities and services.
Additional links: Chapter 14 Online-Only Appendixes: The Medicare Prescription Drug Program (Part D): Status Report (March 2018 Report, Revised June 25, 2018), Chapter 16 Online-Only Appendixes: Mandated Report: Telehealth Services and the Medicare Program (March 2018 report), Errata Sheet: Table 9-7, Page 255 (March 2018 Report, Revised May 30, 2018)
Date: 03/2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
view details
Developing a "Toolkit" to Measure Implementation of Concurrent Palliative Care in Rural Community Cancer Centers
Reports on the implementation of an early palliative care telehealth model identified as ENABLE (Educate, Nurture, Advise, Before Life Ends) for patients with recently diagnosed cancer and their caregivers in 4 rural cancer centers. Describes the measures used to determine early palliative care implementation and their development and testing, and the challenges and lessons learned in the implementation process.
Author(s): Lisa Zubkoff, J. Nicholas Dionne-Odom, Maria Pisu, et al.
Citation: Palliative & Supportive Care, 16(1), 60-72
Date: 02/2018
Type: Document
view details
Models and Strategies to Integrate Palliative Care Principles into Care for People with Serious Illness: Proceedings of a Workshop
Summarizes presentations, discussions, and workshop participant suggestions for improving the quality of, expanding access to, and supporting policies for community-based palliative care. Provides examples of community-based palliative care models, including a model for reaching patients in rural underserved areas.
Additional links: Read Online, Workshop Highlights
Author(s): Roundtable on Quality Care for People with Serious Illness
Date: 2018
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Health and Medicine Division (HMD), National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
view details
Infrequent Provision of Palliative Care to Patients with Dialysis-Requiring AKI
Explores the use of palliative care among patients with acute kidney injury (AKI) who require dialysis. Examines data contained in the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) database from 44 states and over 4,000 hospitals. Compares palliative care use across different comorbidities, patient demographics, and hospital types, including urban and rural hospitals.
Author(s): Kelly Chong, Samuel A. Silver, Jin Long, et al.
Citation: Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, 12(11), 1744-1752
Date: 11/2017
Type: Document
view details
Rural-Urban Variations in Medicare Live Discharge Patterns from Hospice, 2012-2013
Details a study on the instances of live discharges from the Medicare hospice program from 2012-2013. Compares rural and urban discharge rates, as well as for-profit and nonprofit business models.
Author(s): Rachel Dolin, Denise Kirk, Mark Holmes
Date: 09/2017
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: North Carolina Rural Health Research Program
view details
Engaging Patients and Families to Create a Feasible Clinical Trial Integrating Palliative and Heart Failure Care: Results of the Enable CHF-PC Pilot Clinical Trial
Presents the results of a study to determine the feasibility and site differences in an early palliative care (EPC) trial, the ENABLE CHF-PC (Educate, Nurture, Advise, Before Life Ends Comprehensive Heartcare for Patients and Caregivers). Participants were from rural and underserved areas with diverse socioeconomic and racial backgrounds. Sixty-one patients with advance heart failure and 48 caregivers participated in the program.
Author(s): Marie Bakitas, J. Nicholas Dionne-Odom, Salpy V. Pamboukian, et al.
Citation: BMC Palliative Care, 16(1), 45
Date: 08/2017
Type: Document
view details
Rural-Urban Differences in Medicare Service Use in the Last Six Months of Life
Details a study on healthcare utilization by Medicare beneficiaries in the last six months of life in both urban and rural areas. Looks specifically at inpatient care, outpatient care, and home health, as well as other types of healthcare services.
Author(s): Elizabeth Crouch, Kevin J. Bennett, Janice C. Probst
Date: 08/2017
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Rural and Minority Health Research Center (formerly the South Carolina Rural Health Research Center)
view details
The Financial Importance of Medicare Post-Acute and Hospice Care to Rural Hospitals
Findings brief describing variation in the number of hospitals in rural areas providing Medicare post-acute care (PAC) and hospice care, average amount of revenue generated for these services, and financial importance to rural hospitals. Includes statistics on 2015 Medicare PAC and hospice care revenue as percentage of patient revenue in 1,205 Critical Access Hospitals and 964 Prospective Payment System hospitals.
Author(s): Alex Schulte, H. Ann Howard, George H. Pink
Date: 07/2017
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: North Carolina Rural Health Research Program
view details