Two States Lead the Pack on Palliative Care Access, Many Lag Behind

Two states — Massachusetts and Oregon — rise above the rest when it comes to access to palliative care. This is according to the new rankings from the Center to Advance Palliative Care, America’s Readiness to Meet the Needs of People with Serious Illness Scorecard. The scorecard ranks each state’s capacity to deliver high-quality care […]

Hospice of the Chesapeake Launches New Dementia Program Amid ‘Urgent, Significant’ Need

Hospice of the Chesapeake has unfurled a new dementia care program aimed at providing improved emotional, educational and practical support for patients and their caregivers as their conditions progress. Demographic trends were among the key factors that drove the program forward, said Monica Escalante, chief strategy and information officer at Hospice of the Chesapeake. The […]

American Heart Association Affirms Importance of Palliative Care in Treating Cardiac Conditions

Multidisciplinary palliative care offers clear benefits to patients with cardiovascular disease, particularly when it comes to medication management and goals-of-care conversations. Palliative care with effective medication management, shared decision making and symptom management can help improve quality of life for heart disease patients, according to a scientific statement from the American Heart Association (AHA) — […]

Keys to Negotiating ACO Palliative Care Contracts

Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are key for scaling palliative care through value-based models. Hospices and palliative care providers can collaborate with ACOs by becoming members of those organizations themselves, or by contracting with them through a preferred provider network. These arrangements allow for the negotiation of mutually beneficial terms that are tailored to the needs […]

Palliative Care’s Value-Based Future

Many believe that the fee-for-service model does not sufficiently support a robust palliative care program, meaning that providers must turn to value-based systems for sustainable reimbursement. But primarily, Medicare still reimburses for palliative care through fee-for-service payment programs that cover physician and licensed independent practitioner services. That model does not sufficiently cover the full range […]

How Palliative Care Drives Change in the Health Care System

Palliative care and its core principles may be driving incremental change in the larger health care system. Some of this is likely due to necessity as the nation strains to manage the extensive needs and expensive costs associated with the care of the growing chronically ill senior population. Currently, more than 10,000 individuals become Medicare-eligible […]

The Question of Palliative Care Sustainability

Want to read more palliative care-focused content like this? Subscribe to Palliative Care News today! A wide variety of palliative care services have cropped up nationwide in recent years, but not all have remained viable. The forces driving some community-based palliative programs to shutter are two-pronged, related to financial and operational sustainability, according to Renee McInnes, […]

The Current State of Community-Based Palliative Care

Want to read more palliative care-focused content like this? Subscribe to Palliative Care News today! With the palliative care space in a state of flux, some experts in the field see cause for optimism as well as real questions about what these services will look like, as well as the structures that support them. “Palliative care” […]

How the Value in Health Care Act Could Change Palliative Care Payment

Lawmakers recently introduced the Value in Health Care Act, which, if enacted, could create inroads toward improved palliative care reimbursement. A new version of the Value in Health Care Act includes updates to program parameters of Alternative Payment Models (APMs) to incentivize participation in Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). These changes are designed to increase participation […]