Premier Physician Network (PPN) has launched an integrated palliative program among its medical group operations, in partnership with agilon health (NYSE: AGL) and its palliative arm Empatia.
The program, branded as Senior Health Connect, will provide a palliative care program for Medicare Advantage patients who suffer from serious illnesses. Senior Health Connect is based on agilon’s palliative care model.
“Our role there is as a partner. We bring technology. We bring insights. We can bring powerful data and care pathways,” Dr. Benjamin Kornitzer, agilon’s chief medical officer, previously told Hospice News. “We can co-invest in resources, whether they’re nurses, care managers, social workers. We also can help them create risk sharing contracts with palliative care organizations.”
The company is a value-based organization that partners with primary care physicians nationwide to jointly take on the total cost and quality of care for their senior patients through Medicare Advantage or the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Accountable Care Organization Realizing Equity, Access and Community Health (ACO REACH) model. It currently operates in 35 markets in 15 states.
A recent study published in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management found that the primary care-led, integrated approach to palliative care espoused by agilon were two-thirds less likely to die in a hospital and on average spent five more days at home near the end of life.
Through the Senior Health Connect program, PPN primary care physicians will have support from an extended palliative care team, including advanced practice providers, registered nurses and social workers. The palliative team is available to patients 24/7 and provides home visits to address symptom management and psychosocial concerns.
PPN is part of the private, academic nonprofit health system Premier Health, which services southwest Ohio through multiple hospitals, the physician group, behavioral and home health services, laboratories and long term care facilities.
“A similar initiative was rolled out by agilon in Akron [Ohio] and several other markets, with highly satisfied feedback from patients and their primary care teams,” PPN indicated in a statement. “Our PPN primary care team recently received training for the Empatia Palliative Care Program.”
