Husch Blackwell’s Meg Pekarske is joined by colleague Kathleen Snyder, who has extensive experience in digital health and has been busy advising health care providers on how to safely implement artificial intelligence (AI) tools in their organizations. With AI holding so much promise for helping hospices gain efficiencies, reduce staff burdens, and improve the patient experience, we all need to jump into the future—but do so thoughtfully. This episode will help you with just that. We explore critical do’s and don’ts for AI and key infrastructure hospices should have in place when implementing any type of AI solution. Happy listening!

For hospices, unprecedented competition, enhanced oversight, and looming payment reform create business obstacles or growth opportunities, depending on your outlook. Your growth strategy shouldn’t be the same as your neighbor’s. Instead of following the herd, Husch Blackwell’s Meg Pekarske and Bryan Nowicki explore how to begin thinking about what should be on your strategic plan and the importance of bringing your board along with you.

Additional resources:

Hospice Past v. Present – Considerations

There has been a lot of buzz around psychedelics and particularly their potential usefulness in treating existential suffering at the end of life. Husch Blackwell was the first law firm in the country to establish a Psychedelics & Emerging Therapies practice group devoted to helping clinicians, researchers, and investors navigate the complex and difficult legal and regulatory issues involved in developing new therapies in this space.

In this episode, host Meg Pekarske is joined by the leaders of Husch Blackwell’s Psychedelics & Emerging Therapies practice group, Kimberly Chew, Karen Luong, and Natasha Sumner, who provide an overview of what psychedelics are, their legal status under federal and state laws, and liability considerations for clinicians. We also discuss the recent amicus brief they filed on behalf of nearly 30 end of life and palliative care providers in a case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. While there is a lot to digest here, we hope it is a helpful starting point for learning about this complex and evolving area.

Hospices that have gone through audits are familiar with certain recurring reasons why auditors deny claims. Two common reasons are the lack of support for a six-month prognosis and the insufficiency of the physician narrative. In this episode, Husch Blackwell’s Meg Pekarske and Bryan Nowicki discuss a new twist on these kinds of denials, and how hospices can strengthen their documentation to try to avoid them.

CMS recently expanded its Provisional Period of Enhanced Oversight, or PPEO, in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Texas, and its enforcement activities nationwide appear more aggressive. In this episode, Husch Blackwell’s Meg Pekarske and Bryan Nowicki discuss these enhanced oversight efforts and ways, both structurally and operationally, for hospices to mitigate these risks.

It’s our first podcast of 2025 and we wanted to start the year out with some reflections. Join Husch Blackwell’s Meg Pekarske and Bryan Nowicki as they each share their biggest surprises and victories of 2024 and what is on their wish list for 2025. We hope you enjoy this episode and let us know what is on your wish list of podcast topics for 2025. Wishing you a happy new year!

The United States Supreme Court recently overruled decades-old precedent that favored an administrative agency’s interpretation of ambiguous statutes. This seismic shift in the role of the judiciary will affect every regulated industry, including healthcare and hospice in particular. In this episode, Husch Blackwell’s Meg Pekarske and Bryan Nowicki discuss the implications of this decision in the hospice space.

Hospices that have been audited have to decide how to address any alleged overpayment identified by the auditor, whether through a voluntary repayment, recoupment, or applying for an extended repayment schedule. CMS recently identified updates to the Medicare Financial Management Manual relating to these options. In this episode, Husch Blackwell’s Meg Pekarske and Bryan Nowicki discuss those updates which, practically speaking, do not significantly change the existing options.

Additional Resources:

MM 11808 - Limitation on Recoupment of Medicare Overpayments

CR 11808 - Updating Chapter 3, Sections 200.5 - 200.8, Limitation on Recoupment; Medicare Overpayments Manual

In this episode, Husch Blackwell’s Meg Pekarske is joined by long-time hospice friend and industry guru Greg Grabowski. They turned the microphone on their usually private (but always lively) discussions on what’s going on in the wide world of hospice. To make it especially fun, they each prepared, but did not share prior to recording, their own list of what’s working and not working in hospice right now. Listen in to see how their observations match up.

UPIC activity is picking up, and the UPICs are reviving some old tactics. In this episode, Husch Blackwell’s Meg Pekarske and Bryan Nowicki continue the discussion on these trends which include extrapolation, Medicaid nursing home room and board payments, patient interviews, and more. Meg and Bryan also describe some handouts they’ve developed to help hospices stay prepared for the inevitable audit.