by editor | Oct 20, 2022 | Compliance and Regulatory - Directors, Reports
What are hospice volunteers?
The hospice movement was started by volunteers and there are currently more than 460,000 hospice volunteers nationwide.
To retain the volunteer-based essence of hospice, one of the Medicare conditions of participation requires that hospices incorporate volunteer services into their daily patient care and operations routine.
Is there a requirement on the number of hospice volunteer hours?
Medicare requires that volunteer must provide services that equal at least 5% of the total patient care hours of all paid hospice employees and contract staff. Read more about this requirement here: What is a hospice’s volunteer requirement?
How is the Medicare 5% requirement calculated?
The percentage of volunteer time is calculated in three steps:
- Step 1: Calculate the sum of volunteer direct care patient hours plus volunteer bereavement support patient hours plus volunteer administrative hours. See What is a hospice’s volunteer requirement? for clarification on these various types of volunteer hours and activities as well as clarification on what volunteer activities may be applied for use in this calculation.
- Step 2: Calculate the sum of employee direct care patient hours plus contractor direct care patient hours
- Step 3: Divide the number in Step 1 by the number in Step 2 and multiply by 100. The result is the percentage of volunteer hours
What activities performed by hospice employees or contractors are included?
Similar to the limitations placed on volunteer activities that may be included for the purposed of this Medicare match calculation, not all activities performed by a hospice’s employees or contractors are included in Step 2.
Hours for the following staff are included in the calculation (though others may be included as well): nurse, social worker, physician, physical therapist, hospice aide, chaplain, bereavement counselor
- All direct care activities are included in the calculation
- Telephone calls to patients, families, or surviving family members are included
- Staff education time is not included
- IDG time is not included
Where can you get more information?
Read more about hospice volunteer requirements: NHPCO Hospice Volunteer FAQ
by editor | Oct 20, 2022 | Compliance and Regulatory - Directors, Reports, Rules and Regulations - Nurses
Volunteers are an essential components of hospice. The hospice movement was started by volunteers. There are currently more than 460,000 hospice volunteers nationwide. Volunteers provide administrative support or direct patient care services.
Are hospices required to have volunteers?
Use of volunteers is a Medicare condition of participation. Medicare requires the use of hospice volunteers for any Medicare certified hospice. Volunteers must be used in day to day administrative tasks that support direct patient care activities and/or in direct patient care roles.
For each hospice agency, volunteer hours must equal 5% of total patient care hours for all paid hospice agency employees and contractors. A hospice must maintain records of the number of hours worked by volunteers as well as the types of activities performed and whether these activities were administrative or patient care.
The hospice volunteers must perform their activities under the supervision of a designated hospice employee.
Are there other volunteer-related requirements?
There are additional training and documentation requirements that a hospice agency must meet, relating to hospice volunteers:
- A hospice must provide orientation and training for its hospice volunteers and this training must documented
- Efforts to recruit volunteers on an ongoing basis must be documented
- Cost savings achieved through the use of volunteers must be documented. The documentation must include the volunteer’s position, the time spent by the volunteer, and the estimated dollars that would have been spent by the hospice had this position been filled by a paid hospice employee
What direct patient care activites are performed by a volunteer?
Volunteers travel to the location where the patient currently resides – such as the patient’s home, a nursing home, or an assisted living facility – and work directly with patients, caregivers, and families. These volunteers are considered direct care volunteers. Examples of direct care activities include:
- Performing light household chores
- Cooking meals
- Provide transportation for patients or their families
- Provide companionship to the patient
- Providing respite so that family caregivers can take a break
- Using some special skills that the volunteer has such as giving a manicure, giving a haircut, playing a musical instrument, doing an art project with the patient, and the like
- Travel time to the patient’s home may also be included in volunteer hours, if travel time is also used in the calculation of hospice employee hours
- Time a volunteer
What indirect care activities are performed by a volunteer?
Volunteers can also have an impact without directly interacting with patients. For example, they can prepare items that are delivered to patients, they can advocate for hospice patients in the community, or they can go to volunteer health fairs. Indirect care hospice volunteers can also assist the hospice agency with administrative and general office tasks. Examples of indirect care activities include:
- Assisting with preparing mailings for community outreach
- Assisting with data entry, filing, copying, or other clerical duties
- Answering phone calls,
- Preparing blankets to be delivered to hospice patients
- Helping setup for community events
- Helping with grief support groups
What activities may be included in the calculation of volunteer time?
There activities that may be included in total hospice volunteer hours are varied. For example:
- Time that the volunteer is performing the actual tasks (such as assisting with mailings, data entry, light housekeeping, etc.)
- Telephone calls to hospice patients, their family members, caregivers, or bereaved family members
- Travel time to patient homes, if this travel time is included in the calculation of hours for hospice employees
- Time spent receiving orientation to a specific patient
- Time spent in training to perform specific tasks
What activities may not be included in the calculation of volunteer time?
Recall that volunteers must be used in day to day administrative and or direct care patient roles. So the following are examples of activities that would not be included in the calculation of total volunteer hours:
- Flower arranging
- Working in a thrift shop
- General volunteer training that is not specific to a patient or to an administrative task
- Participation in the agency’s governing board
Where can you find out more?
