The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently announced a six-month nationwide moratoria on new Medicare enrollment for hospices and home health agencies in an effort to curb “fraud, waste and abuse” in the Medicare program.

Serenity Hospice and Home of Oregon, which provides hospice services to Ogle County and the region, will be unaffected by the moratoria. Serenity CEO Suzanne Ravlin spoke to Shaw Local on May 21 about what the CMS announcement means to the hospice industry in an effort to educate local families that may have a need for hospice services in the future.

Ravlin said she wants the community to understand that not every hospice organization is the same.

“I think it’s really important to look at quality,” Ravlin said. “CMS requires all hospices to post metrics on quality of care. That’s very important. When new hospices pop up, they don’t have to deal with those quality metrics for years. That has allowed for some abuse. We were also concerned at Serenity that there would be a fear in the community that hospice services won’t be available. Serenity has the capacity to take care of all of our patients in the community and provide our services.”

Serenity Hospice and Home is a nonprofit, independently owned hospice. It offers both hospice and palliative services, both at its 1658 Illinois Route 2 facility and in patients’ homes and long-term care facilities.

Serenity provides pediatric hospice services and also offers services such as grief counseling. Serenity has staff available to take calls from patients and families around the clock. Ravlin said her organization finds creative ways to take care of patients, such as pet therapy or helping a patient have their last combine ride.

“Things like that help patients and their families and caregivers,” Ravlin said. “About seven years ago we found that the best way to help someone in their last days is to be with them throughout that entire diagnosis. That’s why we have palliative and hospice services. We want the loved ones to know that we’re going to help the lives of both the patient and the family. Our services expand throughout the entire end-of-life journey. We want to make ourselves available as a resource to the community for everything involved with hospice care.”

Ravlin said that as a nonprofit, Serenity can provide hospice services regardless of an individual’s health insurance benefits or ability to pay. Medicare provides 100% of hospice care and is a guaranteed benefit of Medicare/Medicaid.

“A number of” non-Illinois hospices have been in the state providing for-profit hospice services recently, Ravlin said. Her concern with that is that patients may not be getting all the services they should be.

Ravlin said Serenity is set apart from those hospices because it’s local and does not report to shareholders or a for-profit model.

Serenity is available to the community as a resource for information about end-of-life care even before a diagnosis, Ravlin said. She said the “challenging and difficult” topic of hospice care can leave people in situations where they enter into agreements for hospice services and don’t receive the best quality of care.

With an aging population in Ogle County and the recent CMS ruling, hospice services will become more vital, she said.

“Hospice is a difficult thing,” Ravlin said. “These conversations are incredibly difficult, but we’re experts in them and meeting patients where they’re at. Our services can really help and we want people to know that, long before the last day.”