To safeguard hospice viability and extend services to the growing numbers in need of hospice care, it's crucial that hospices respond proactively to the changes in regulations and reimbursement.
According to figures produced by the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, Medicare and Medicaid provide reimbursements for more than 90 percent of hospice care costs. While this is bad enough, funding per patient provided by Medicare is slowly but surely reducing driven by budgetary cuts intended to increase productivity. While these cuts are putting added strain on hospice finances, additional administrative requirements are forcing them to allocate additional resources to ensure compliance.
Due to these changes, there is an urgent need to improve efficiencies, limit overhead costs and simultaneously meet patients' needs while complying with regulatory requirements.
It was the recognition of this dilemma that led a group of leading hospice service providers to partner together and form SONO with the principal aims of simplifying administrative tasks and lowering costs.
SONO UNITE
SONO Unite, has a dual objective to:
SONO's mission statement declares its intention to:
These goals are achieved through the collaboration of ten of the best, privately-owned, hospice service providers in the nation.
Benefits of Partnering with SONO Unite
By partnering with SONO, hospice providers realize three important benefits:
Reducing Hospice Costs and Improving Patient Care
Much of the rationale behind the reduction in funding is a drive to increase hospice efficiency. This can only be achieved through the adoption of innovative methods that reduce administrative workload while, at the same time, improve the quality of information available to administrators.