YoloCares to Double Geographic Footprint

California-based YoloCares is doubling its geographic presence in its home state. The hospice provider recently took its first step into a new county, with plans to expand across four others.

YoloCares provides hospice, palliative and supportive care in five counties across northern California, recently adding a sixth county to its service region. The hospice provider has been approved to expand to ultimately serve 10 counties in the state to meet rising demand, according to YoloCares CEO Craig Dresang.

“YoloCares was required to seek approval from the California Department of Public Health to expand its current service area from five to ten counties in Northern California,” Dresang told Hospice News in an email. “Some of the newly added counties represent rural areas where there is a significant community need for hospice services. Other counties fall within a 90-minute drive time from the main office which is another way to secure approval for an expanded service area.”

YoloCares affiliated with the California Hospice Network (CHN) in 2021. The regional hospice collaborative group of nonprofit hospice and palliative providers also includes Hospice of the Foothills and Hospice of Santa Cruz County.

YoloCares has an adult day program and offers caregiver and advance care planning services, along with grief support. Its palliative care program launched in 2016. The hospice provider also operates YoloCares University, which provides hospice and palliative educational resources to clinicians and interdisciplinary staff of its partnering facilities.

Though its current expansion is focused on hospice, YoloCares’ other business lines will soon expand as well.

“Over time, the expansion will include not just hospice, but our very robust community-based palliative care program which was the first in Northern California to be accredited by The Joint Commission,” Dresang said. “We are also looking at the possibility of busing in residents from rural populations who may benefit from our state-of-the-art adult day program called Galileo Place in Davis. Other programs like the Center for Loss & Hope and the Center for Caregiver Support will eventually be available to clients in all 10 counties.”

YoloCares provided care to 592 hospice patients and roughly 234 palliative patients in 2023, according to its annual report. Additionally, its grief center, unveiled in 2022, served nearly 1,050 community members last year.

The organization sees further evolution in hospice on the horizon, as well as across its other service lines, Dresang said during the 2024 Hospice Outlook Webinar.

“Our entire industry is really in a metamorphosis. And what’s top of mind for me is further clarifying how we morph into something more than just a hospice organization that has other programs,” Dresang told Hospice News. “Survivability and relevance in the future of this segment of health care really demands that we become a different organization that happens to have hospice in our portfolio of service and care programs.”

Watch (click here): Hospice News 2024 Outlook Webinar

YoloCares has been on a growth trajectory, including an aim to reduce health disparities and address barriers to end-of-life care. The hospice provider late last year launched its Life Transitions Project in a move to improve access and utilization among underserved groups, including rural patients and Native American populations.

This expansion by an established nonprofit provider can help stem the tide of rampant fraud among newly certified hospices in California, according to Dresang.

“Quality end-of-life care in California is under siege. In Sacramento alone, there are more hospices operating than there are in the entire state of Florida. Many of these programs exist, not as extensions of their community, but as enterprises to generate profit for investors or owners,” Dresang said. “When profitability becomes the main focus, then quality can take a back seat. We are very concerned that the proliferation of nefarious programs in California is harming not only the dying patient, but the family whose memory will be of a loved one suffering because they didn’t get adequate care.”