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Your hospice’s Service and Spending Variation Index (SSVI) score can flag a concern—but it can’t explain the care behind the numbers.
In Part Two of Hospice SSVI Explained: What Your Score Isn’t Telling You, host Chris Comeaux continues his conversation with Lindsay Doak about what hospice leaders need to understand beyond their scores. They explore how fraud enforcement could shift comparison benchmarks, why non-hospice spending deserves closer attention, and how staffing shortages can affect the measures used to evaluate care.
For healthcare leaders, nonprofit executives, and hospice professionals, this episode turns a complex oversight discussion into practical leadership priorities: know your data, make sure claims accurately reflect the care delivered, and focus improvement efforts where they matter most. Looking ahead, Chris and Lindsay examine the potential for value-based reimbursement and a more meaningful definition of hospice quality—one grounded in consistent care, caregiver experience, and the value hospice brings to patients, families, and communities.
Five Key Takeaways
- Understand what drives your score. Look beyond SSVI points to the underlying claims, visit patterns, and non-hospice spending.
- Make care visible in your billing. Inaccurately reported visit minutes can leave delivered care underrepresented in claims-based measures.
- Connect improvement plans to staffing capacity. Visit expectations and access to different levels of hospice care depend on having the people and resources to deliver them.
- Prepare for greater accountability. Lindsay shares her outlook on potential payment changes and why leaders should assess their operational and financial exposure.
- Define quality around patients and caregivers. Meaningful standards should reflect reliable care and caregiver experience, with evidence informing how performance is rewarded.
Listen to Part Two, then bring one question to your next leadership meeting: Does our data tell the full story of the care we provide? Share this episode with your clinical, finance, and quality teams, and subscribe to TCNtalks / Anatomy of Leadership for conversations that strengthen your leadership and the care your community receives.
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Our Host
Chris Comeaux
MLAS, CPA
President / CEO of Teleios
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