AAHPM 2027: March 17-20, Pittsburgh
The 2027 Annual Assembly of Hospice and Palliative Care runs March 17-20 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, PA. Hospice and palliative care economics are unique in healthcare: per-diem reimbursement, length-of-stay dynamics, and tightly regulated cost structures. Sorso is not an exhibitor, sponsor, or speaker at this event. This is an independent prep guide for hospice and palliative care leaders.
The CFO read
Hospice is one of the most regulated reimbursement environments in healthcare and one of the easiest to mismanage financially. Programs that do not actively monitor cap exposure and level-of-care mix can face material recoupment risk. Before Pittsburgh, calculate your current cap year liability and your length-of-stay distribution. If your cap exposure is material, that is the most important financial conversation to have at the Assembly.
— Stanislav Sukhinin, CFA · Founder, Sorso
Why this matters for your bottom line
Hospice operates under a per-diem reimbursement model with four levels of care, each with very different economics. Knowing your length of stay and level-of-care mix is foundational to financial management.
The hospice cap on Medicare reimbursement creates a hard ceiling for organizations with longer-stay patients. Cap exposure is one of the most material financial risks specific to the industry.
Palliative care services in the outpatient and clinic setting have a different reimbursement structure (E/M, advance care planning codes). Practices building palliative programs need to model this separately from hospice.
Workforce shortages in hospice nursing and chaplaincy continue to push wages up. Programs that have not revisited staffing models in the last 24 months are often overpaying or understaffed.
What to look for
Sessions on hospice payment reform and the proposed regulatory changes affecting per-diem rates
Cap management strategies and length-of-stay analysis with real organizational data
Outpatient palliative care program buildout, including reimbursement and staffing models
Workforce sessions on nursing and chaplaincy retention in a tight labor market
Quality reporting (HQRP, CAHPS Hospice) and its growing financial implications
Mergers, acquisitions, and PE activity in the hospice and palliative care space
Financial prep checklist
Review these before you go.
Run average length of stay, median length of stay, and the share of patients above 180 days
Map your level-of-care mix: routine home care, continuous care, inpatient respite, general inpatient
Estimate your cap exposure: aggregate Medicare payments against cap amount for the current cap year
Walk through direct labor cost per patient day and the trend over the last 24 months
Audit your referral mix and the average length of stay by referral source
Compare your operating margin and per-day cost against hospice industry data for your size
What it costs to send someone
Registration is the line everyone budgets first. It is rarely the one that decides whether the trip was worth it.
Registration
AAHPM has confirmed the dates and the venue but no pricing, and says the 2027 schedule lands in late fall. Registration rates normally follow the schedule, so expect to budget on last year's figure until then.
Coverage and lost production
Hospice and palliative programs run on census and on-call, not on clinic sessions, so the cost of sending a medical director or program leader is redistribution rather than lost billing. Someone else chairs the interdisciplinary team meetings and someone else takes the calls. That is a real scheduling cost even though it never shows up as revenue you can point to.
Who else travels
Programs often send a physician and a nursing or social work lead together so the learning survives the trip. Cost the on-call rearrangement for both, not just the second registration.
What comes back as a deduction
IRS Publication 463 allows the travel deduction for a convention where “your attendance benefits your trade or business,” on the ordinary rules for travel away from home. Meals are generally limited to 50% of the unreimbursed cost. Keep the agenda with the receipts, and confirm the treatment with whoever signs your return.
No rates are quoted here. The organizer had published none when we last checked this page against their site on 10 August 2026, and travel is yours to price for your own dates anyway. The point of the list is that the two lines owners leave out, coverage and headcount, are the ones that decide the real number.
Before AAHPM Annual Assembly 2027, get your own numbers straight
Walk in able to check every benchmark on the slides against your own numbers. Three ways owners start with us:
Fractional CFO
Strategic CFO for $3M–$50M clinics
Forecasts, location-level P&L, and exit prep. Starts at $4,000/mo.
Explore Fractional CFO →Accounting
Healthcare-specialist accounting
Books done right by people who understand clinic finance. Starts at $2,000/mo.
Explore Accounting →Free Assessment
A financial checkup before you go
Four minutes. See where your practice stands so every session is measured against your own numbers.
Take the assessment →Going to AAHPM Annual Assembly 2027?
Tell us, and we will look at coming to meet you.
Stan does not have a ticket booked for this one yet. If enough clinic owners want to sit down there, that is what decides it. Register interest and we will confirm either way well before the dates — no obligation, and we will not add you to a mailing list.
Register interest in meeting →More event guides
Founder of Sorso and a CFA charterholder. Before Sorso, Stan spent 19 years in corporate finance at institutions including UniCredit and Société Générale — managing a $450M loan portfolio and making senior partner at a major mezzanine lender by 29 — then built a fractional CFO firm exclusively for outpatient healthcare clinics.