Advocates Rally in DC for the Future of Hospice: NHPCO and HAN Amplify Provider Voices on Capitol Hill

NHPCO 

HHAC Was There! 

(Alexandria, VA) – More than 100 hospice and palliative care advocates from across the country met with over 150 congressional offices this week to discuss key legislative and regulatory priorities for ensuring and expanding access to hospice and palliative care. The meetings were part of Hospice Action Week, hosted in Washington, DC by the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) and its advocacy affiliate, the Hospice Action Network (HAN).

Hospice Action Week brings together leaders, advocates, and supporters from across the country to unite as one voice to drive positive, legislative change for the betterment of the Medicare Hospice Benefit. This year’s events included a virtual component, giving advocates who were not able to attend in person the opportunity to write letters of support to their Members of Congress on key policy priorities including program integrity measures, telehealth flexibilities, workforce issues, and more.

“The cornerstone of effective advocacy is storytelling. It’s about sharing why hospice holds personal significance and why serious illness and end-of-life care policy should resonate with our lawmakers,” said Logan Hoover, NHPCO’s VP of Policy & Government Relations. “From Hawaii to Rhode Island, advocates from 35 diverse states came to DC this year. The relationships they’re building with Members of Congress hold the potential to shape the future of the healthcare landscape.”

This year, advocates focused on a variety of key issues during their congressional meetings:

• Protecting care for patients and families through program integrity efforts, fixes to the hospice Special Focus Program to ensure proper identification of poor-performing hospices, telehealth flexibilities, expansion of bereavement services, and ensuring access to care for our nation’s Veterans.
  
  
• Making meaningful benefit improvements to increase access and advance health equity by addressing workforce crisis by allowing practitioners to perform at the top of their licensure, reforming the outdates six-month prognosis barrier, enabling concurrent care, and advancing health equity by removing structural barriers to care.
  
  
• Innovation in serious illness care delivery and payment by building upon previous, successful demonstration models through a community-based palliative care benefit and ensuring a seamless ending to the hospice VBID component through support for providers.
  
  
• Protecting access and expanding quality by ensuring providers can offer the right care at the right time by securing an adequate level of reimbursement and ensuring resources are going directly to patient care by eliminating burdensome regulations that jeopardize access while strengthening effective program integrity measures to increase care quality.

In addition to advocate meetings with congressional offices on Wednesday, Hospice Action Week also featured various other meetings of hospice and palliative care leaders from across the country…

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Service Availability Form Publication

CDPHE

Thank you to everyone who participated in stakeholder meetings held from October 2023 through April 2024 to implement HB23-1218, the “Patients’ Right to Know Act.” We deeply value your feedback during the stakeholder process. 

We are excited to share that the service availability form will be published on June 17th on the Department’s website. The website will also host links to the FAQ document, other helpful resources for patients looking for care, and the completed facilities’ forms. Blank forms will also be available for facilities to download and complete. Completed forms must be returned to the Department by August 16th, 2024. Completed forms should be sent to [email protected]. Please ensure that all fields are completed and accurate; forms will be returned if there is no signature, if there are empty fields, or if the facility name or FAC ID does not match the Department’s records. 

Please keep in mind that facilities must distribute service availability forms to patients, patient representatives, and any person upon request beginning October 1st.

As stated in our last meeting, we will be requesting a rulemaking hearing at the Board of Health on June 20th. The Board does not take written or oral testimony during rulemaking requests. However, if the Board approves our request for hearing, we will go forward with a rulemaking hearing on August 21st, where testimony is encouraged. To provide written comment in advance of the August Board of Health meeting, please email [email protected]. To provide oral testimony, you must sign up before 5 pm on the day before the meeting. For further details about providing feedback, please visit Participate in the Board of Health.

Policy Assistant

Policy & Regulation Services

NAHC, NHPCO Sign Historic Affiliation Agreement

NAHC

On June 10, the Board Chairs and chief executive officers of the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) and the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) met in Washington, D.C. to formally sign the affiliation agreement between the two leading organizations in the care at home community.

NAHC and NHPCO are the two largest organizations representing and advocating for providers of care in the home and the millions of disabled, elderly, and dying Americans who depend on that care. With more than 90 years of experience between them, NAHC and NHPCO provide world class education to help their members deliver the best possible care and tireless advocacy to expand access to home and community-based services.

“The NAHC-NHPCO Alliance will be the leading authority and unifying voice of the care at home community,” said NAHC Board Chair and Chair-Elect of the Alliance Kenneth Albert (second from left in photo). “The leadership of both organizations have worked for 18 months to make this happen and the talented staff at NAHC and NHPCO are already hard at work integrating the two organizations. Together, we will make home the center of health care.”

“This alliance between NHPCO and NAHC will create the most powerful voice the care at home community has ever had,” said NHPCO Board Chair and Vice Chair-Elect of the Alliance Melinda Gruber (second from right in photo). “For members, it means access to the best education and expert advice, as well as a strong advocate for sensible policies that help providers deliver the best possible care to the millions of Americans who need it the most.”

“The affiliation of NAHC and NHPCO is a historic event,” said NAHC President and CEO William A. Dombi (at left in photo). “Unifying the voice of health care at home has been a longstanding goal of NAHC, as it is the essence of the original formation of NAHC in 1982. Combining our two organizations will significantly strengthen that voice for the benefit of our members and the patients they serve.”

“The community of providers delivering care primarily in people’s homes is stronger when we work together,” said NHPCO Interim CEO, Ben Marcantonio (at right in photo). “We have demonstrated that strength in recent years with shared advocacy efforts and joint research that have helped change the conversation in Washington and beyond. Aligning NHPCO and NAHC into one new organization will mean we can better serve our members well into the future.”

The signing of the agreement takes NAHC and NHPCO into a new phase of an ongoing process. Beginning July 1, the organizations will begin integrating operations, a process that is expected to take the rest of the year.  That process will take place under the name the NAHC-NHPCO Alliance while the future name of the organization is determined. Considerable progress on a new name has been made and is in process of trademarking approvals. Meanwhile, a robust search for a CEO for the new organization is under way, with dozens of qualified candidates being considered.

‘An Absurd Amount of Denials’: New Legislation Seeks to Streamline Access to Home Health Services, Improve Senior Care

Home Health Care News | By Robert Holly
 
A group of bipartisan lawmakers this week reintroduced legislation aimed at curtailing restrictive – and often flawed – prior-authorization processes within Medicare Advantage (MA).
 
As it has been to most other parts of health care, prior authorization has long been problematic for home health providers and patients. That’s been increasingly true as more insurers have started to adopt systems and processes that use predictive analytics and algorithms to guide their decision-making, too.
 
In the Senate, the legislation – the Improving Seniors’ Timely Access to Care Act – was introduced by Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and John Thune (R-S.D.). Companion legislation was likewise put forth in the House, led by U.S. Reps. Mike Kelly (R-Penn.), Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), Larry Bucshon (R-Ind.) and Ami Bera (D-Calif.).
 
“Right now, too many older Americans enrolled in Medicare Advantage are forced to deal with unnecessary delays when seeking out [care],” Sen. Brown said in a statement. “We need to update the Medicare Advantage program so it works better, faster, and is more transparent for patients and providers.”
 
If passed, the Improving Seniors’ Timely Access to Care Act would increase transparency around MA prior-authorization requirements and their use. It would additionally establish an e-PA process for MA plans, including a standardization for transactions and clinical attachments.
 
By digitizing parts of prior authorization, the hope is that some decisions could be reached faster – even in real time.
 
The Alzheimer’s Association, AARP, the American Hospital Association, the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Care, and LeadingAge are among the many health and senior care groups to support the legislation. 
 
“By removing unnecessary barriers that create delays in treatment, this meaningful bill will improve access to care for seniors and allow caregivers to spend more valuable time at the bedside with patients and less time on burdensome paperwork,” American Hospital Association Executive Vice President Stacey Hughes said in a statement…

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