How St. Croix Hospice's Early Adoption of BEREAVE Reduced Mailings [Case Study]
Bereavement outreach has always been one of the most human parts of hospice care. A letter arriving in a grieving family's mailbox signals that someone remembers them, that the relationship didn't end after their loved one passed. The intention behind that outreach is irreplaceable. The envelope it arrives in, however? That's worth examining.
The U.S. Postal Service is seeking to raise first-class stamp prices to between 90 and 95 cents1. Postmaster General David Steiner made the case before the House Oversight Committee, citing a $9 billion loss in 20252 and warning that the USPS could run out of cash within 12 months without significant changes.
For hospice programs mailing bereavement correspondence to hundreds of families a month via USPS, this presents a major budget challenge with no ceiling in sight.
The cost of a Forever stamp has risen from 55 cents in 2020 to 78 cents today—a 42% increase in just six years.3 The stamp will increase once again to 82 cents starting July 12, 2026.
And while the proposed jump to 90-95 cents still requires approval from the Postal Regulatory Commission before it can take effect, the trajectory is clear.
Each postage increase impacts programs that rely on physical mail to fulfill regulatory obligations—including hospice bereavement programs.
The CMS Medicare Hospice Conditions of Participation (CoPs) require hospices to provide bereavement support to families for at least 13 months following a patient's death. For many bereavement programs, that means a scheduled sequence of physical postcards and letters to grieving families over the course of this timeframe.
At 95 cents a stamp, that volume adds up quickly. And it represents cost with unclear and detached impact: minimal opportunities for families to meaningfully engage with agencies, provide feedback, or request additional help as they grieve.
Maxwell TEC's BEREAVE module within the nanaCONNECT patient communication platform was built to solve the inefficiency and high costs of direct mailings by modernizing the mechanics of it.
At its core, BEREAVE replaces unpredictable postage exposure with ACHC-accredited and CHAP-verified hospice technology. The platform delivers text messages at a fixed, predictable cost per outreach, currently providing over 50% in cost savings—and over 60% in cost savings if USPS approves the increase to 95 cents.
BEREAVE offers a predictable, stable line item for hospice agencies amid economic uncertainty and skyrocketing postage costs with no ceiling in sight.
Where a physical letter is one-directional, BEREAVE opens an immediate, personalized, and two-way communication channel that meets grieving loved ones where they are: on their phones.
Families can easily respond to BEREAVE text messages, and care teams can follow up meaningfully. Every message can be tracked within the BEREAVE system, so agencies have peace of mind that their outreach didn't get lost or discarded in the pile of bills and junk mail—BEREAVE text messages directly reach the people they're meant for.
Automated scheduling ensures bereavement touchpoints go out on the hospice agency's post-loss schedule without requiring staff to track a manual calendar. Custom, tailored messaging allows for impactful agency- or branch-specific communication, better reflecting the relationship that the hospice care team built compared to standard mailings.
With a comprehensive Contact Response Page, BEREAVE leverages AI to help hospice agencies analyze and categorize message responses by sentiment. This sentiment analysis flags messages by urgency, allowing bereavement teams to respond more quickly and prioritize care for those who need it most.
BEREAVE offers a comprehensive engagement dashboard filled with metrics to help teams uncover valuable insights that shape future referral strategies, sales and marketing initiatives, and improve the overall care experience.
BEREAVE enables hospice agencies to meet hospice bereavement guidelines under the Medicare CoPs while remaining HIPAA-compliant—using encryption to keep protected health information (PHI) safe and limiting data access to authorized individuals only. Additionally, BEREAVE is the only tech-enabled bereavement support product that's both ACHC-accredited and CHAP-verified, reinforcing its credibility and alignment with all industry best practices.
St. Croix Hospice moved to BEREAVE for straightforward reasons: rising postage costs and a recognition that communication preferences were shifting.
Before the switch, they were sending between 8,000 and 10,000 mailings per month across the 13-month bereavement care period. After implementing BEREAVE, they reduced that volume by 93%.
The benefits of BEREAVE extended beyond postage. With one in three bereavement contacts responding to a message or engaging with a provided link to resources, St. Croix gained something traditional mail never offered: visibility into family engagement, and a channel for those families to respond when they needed support.
Read the full story of how St. Croix Hospice's early adoption of BEREAVE has reduced paper mailings, boosted engagement, and elevated grief support in our case study.
BEREAVE isn't about choosing technology over compassion.
It enables hospice teams to honor their bereavement care programs more consistently, compassionately, and with documentation that supports compliance—all at one-third of what physical mail will cost by mid-2026.
If your team is still relying on manual processes and stamped envelopes to carry out one of the most important parts of hospice care, now is the time to begin modernizing. Learn more about BEREAVE, and reach out to our team to book your personalized demo today.