NHPCO NewsLine Spring 2020 - 7

NHPCO leadership engage with the media on a daily basis. Sometimes it's a formal

interview, other times they want a specific comment on a relevant issue, and sometimes
it's for context to better understand the field. President and CEO Edo Banach recently
spoke with a reporter from a national news outlet on some themes that are timely. We
thought the membership would enjoy reading the dialogue between the two. The journalist
is not identified, our intention is to share Edo's thoughts with the membership.

Journalist: The growth of

hospice, I think most people have
looked at it and asked, "Is more
hospice better?" Are you all seeing
some growing pains that you are
starting to identify?

Edo Banach: Yes, without a
doubt. I think that as hospice
becomes a bigger and bigger part
of the health care delivery system
- and part of this is
demographics - there are more
people who are entering that
phase of life, where they are
going to succumb to disease. Part
of what we're seeing in terms of
the growth of hospice is that the
growth is matching the
demographics, that's point
number one. Number two, we've
actually done a good job as a
society and as a community of
getting it to be that over half of
Medicare beneficiaries die on
hospice care. Not so long ago it
was much less than that. So, with
demographics and the number of
people who avail themselves of
hospice, there is growth that's
warranted. That said, it is also
true that hospice has become
more attractive to providers in
recent years. Sometimes for the
right reasons - people want to
provide excellent care - and
sometimes for the wrong reasons.

Journalist: Some concerning

reports were released several
months back, how did you
respond?

Edo Banach: Yes, the Office of
Inspector General came out with
a series of reports about six
months ago citing some lapses in
care that did indeed get the
attention of the media. And one
response to that could have been,
"Us? Never." That was not our
response because the fact is that
problems do happen. And we
want to work with the
government, with Congress, with
CMS that oversees providers, to
tighten up enforcement. To
tighten up their own utilization of
the tools that they have to make
sure that when people get
hospice care, it's the best care
possible. We shared public
messaging and information with
our membership that addressed
the reports in a direct fashion and
there are concerns that we are
taking seriously.
It's not in our interest, it's in no
one's interest for people to get
substandard hospice care. One of
the misperceptions, I think, is that
it's a particular type of provider
that is contributing to some of
the problems that we're seeing.

That's not necessarily the case.
There are large for-profit and
nonprofit entities that are doing
an excellent job, just like there are
large for-profit and nonprofit
hospices that are doing a job that
fails to meet expectations. We
see smaller providers delivering
excellent care and small providers
struggling to do so. It really runs
the gamut. I think it's really
important to focus on the quality
of care that's provided and not a
particular kind of provider.

...with
demographics and
the number of
people who avail
themselves of
hospice, there is
growth that's
warranted.

Newsline / Spring 2020

7
NHPCO NewsLine Spring 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NHPCO NewsLine Spring 2020
