A new palliative care provider has emerged in Colorado, branded as Journey of Care.
Journey of Care is among the rare companies that strictly provide palliative care, without the service being attached to a hospice, health system, primary care company or other entity. The company was established about six months ago.
A “significant opportunity” exists for value-based palliative care, according to Journey of Care Founder and CEO Jessie Israel.
“There are a lot of companies in the serious illness or chronic care management space that are trying to support our value-based partners, but what they can’t do, what they’re really missing is this palliative care piece,” Israel told Palliative Care News. “There’s not enough providers to provide palliative care. Providers are really hard to find. It feels like there’s a big market opportunity; it’s a big, blue ocean.”
Value-based reimbursement will be key to the company’s growth as it turns away from fee-for-service reimbursement. Traditional Medicare only reimburses for physician and licensed independent practitioner services and does not support the full range of interdisciplinary care. Thus, securing payer contracts is a top priority for Journey of Care at its outset.
Though a Medicare Advantage organization came to Journey of Care early in its existence to pursue a partnership, MA plans will not be the sole or primary focus of the palliative care provider’s efforts to secure contracts.
“There’s a lot of other opportunities in institutional special needs plans and long term care insurance and senior living models,” Israel said. “There’s other ways besides going directly to those MA plans. I think everyone is trying to sell something to an MA or to an Accountable Care Organization. We look at who else is within this space of managing large numbers of patients. There are so many more partners to look at outside of just your traditional MA and ACO.”
Journey of Care’s clinical model is based on acuity, and patients receive a minimum of three visits per month or more based on their care plan. In-person care is also backed by telehealth support.
Their approach has three prongs — consultation, co-management and case management, according to Jennifer Davis, Journey of Care’s chief clinical officer. It also includes advance care planning services.
The company’s path forward includes seeking out unique partnerships that go beyond hospitals and hospices.
“Sometimes with palliative care, you typically think of it linked to a hospice or inpatient in a hospital, but you don’t think of it as integrated within other models like cardiac clinics, pulmonary clinics, Parkinson’s and neurology clinics,” Davis told Palliative Care News. “You just don’t think of that integration, and I think that’s really a gap in care, because you’re missing opportunities.”
