New legislation is leading some hospices to consider what a potential community-based palliative care payment demo would mean for them — as well as what it would look like. Four U.S. senators recently introduced a bipartisan bill that, if enacted, would steer the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) to develop a palliative care-specific […]
Category: Palliative Care
When deployed at scale, palliative care can help achieve many of the health care systems current goals, including reduced costs, improved patient satisfaction and quality of life. Despite this potential, existing programs hit barriers created by misconceptions about palliative care among referring physicians, as well as health equity concerns, among others, according to an analysts […]
Collaborations between palliative and primary care providers may be on the rise, a trend that could give way to competitive edges around referral streams. Many patients lack access to palliative care in part due to lagging reimbursement for these services. This is among the reasons driving more palliative care providers to join forces with primary […]
Palliative care patients who receive psychological, emotional and spiritual support are more likely to elect hospice when they become eligible. Researchers in Israel studied 180 hospitalized cancer patients between November 2018 and March 2020. They found that patients who utilized social worker, psychologist and/or chaplain services chose to forgo aggressive treatments in their final days […]
Patients are more likely to create an advance care plan if they receive nurse-led palliative care services versus those who had standard care alone. Among patients who received palliative services, a recent three-month assessment found significant increases in the number who participated in end-of-life conversations and completed advance care plans, according to research published in […]
The Delaware Valley Accountable Care Organization (ACO) has leveraged a comprehensive, community-based palliative care program developed by its partner Main Line Health to reduce costs of care by $9,000 per eligible patient. Among Delaware Valley’s palliative care recipients, hospital admissions were 50% lower and emergency department visits fell by 35%, generating about $9,000 in savings […]
Homebase Medical, a subsidiary of SCAN Group, is developing a new palliative model to care for some of the Medicare Advantage organization’s most vulnerable beneficiaries. This development comes as SCAN, the parent company of SCAN Health Plan, prepares to combine with fellow nonprofit CareOregon, which has a large Medicaid portfolio. Post-transaction, the combined organization will […]
North Carolina-headquartered Novant Health has launched a new palliative care program to help improve quality of life for patients with heart failure. The health system is rolling out the new program in partnership with hospice and palliative care provider Lower Cape Fear LifeCare. The two nonprofit organizations developed it to expand access and care options […]
Recent research has found that varying state laws around palliative care can impact cancer patients’ place of death. Cancer patients in states with laws that require health care providers to provide palliative consultations were more likely to die in the home or in an inpatient hospice setting versus the hospital, a JAMA Network Open study […]
In New Jersey, a partnership between a health services company and a nursing home is offering a new approach to long-term illness, tailoring palliative care treatment plans to individual patients. Samaritan Health Services Partners, a not-for-profit complex illnesses company, and Laurel Brook Rehab, a 220-bed facility in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey, have joined together to […]