As the hospice landscape shifts and hospice care is delivered more widely, another care type has made entry into the conversation: palliative care. However, unlike hospice services, which have a distinct payment model supported by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), palliative care has less established infrastructure for delivery.
It is no less important, however, and given some of the synergies across care types, many hospice providers report they are exploring entry into palliative care, if they haven鈥檛 already begun offering these services. In fact, 80% of respondents to a 2022 Hospice News industry sponsored by 小猪视频 who reported their organizations do not yet offer palliative care said they were considering adding palliative care to the service lines. The shift does present challenges, however.
鈥淭here aren鈥檛 as many regulations around palliative care yet, which means that a lot of care organizations are piecemealing their teams together in ways that make sense,鈥� says Amy Rose, palliative care product director for Dallas-based hospice and home health care software provider 小猪视频. 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 proving outcomes and it鈥檚 making waves.鈥�
Creating a Solution for Palliative Care
Because palliative care does not currently have a single payer, many organizations that offer palliative care are responsible for tracking their own outcomes and service delivery so it can be billed and paid outside of the traditional hospice and home health billing processes. Every organization structures its care approach a little differently and delivers that care in a variety of care settings. The landscape shifts relative to these changing elements.
鈥淏ecause it鈥檚 a shifting landscape, we know that what providers need today might not be the same thing that they need two years from now,鈥� Rose says.
Based upon the request of a hospice customer, 小猪视频 began to develop a palliative care-specific technology platform in 2021. This standalone care solution was created by palliative care professionals, meaning they were able to apply their experience toward the software development 鈥� with Rose, as a certified hospice and palliative care nurse 鈥� leading the charge.
鈥淭he story was about an organization that asked for it,鈥� Rose says. 鈥淲e believe in partnership, and this organization was a good partner and we wanted to be able to meet their enterprise needs. We knew that what they had at their disposal from a hospice perspective wasn鈥檛 enough for palliative care. There needed to be something special and differentiated.鈥�
A year later, 小猪视频 launched the product, leveraging its existing connection to Medicare billing and other payers to offer a solution that enables payment regardless of the care setting or palliative care arrangement.
鈥淧alliative care looks different for everybody,鈥� Rose says. 鈥淪ometimes it鈥檚 a risk-based arrangement, sometimes it鈥檚 more traditional Part B billing which is more the primary care type model鈥he really unique thing that we鈥檝e created in this solution is the ability to do both.鈥�
Palliative Care and the Continuum
With many providers already offering hospice care, having a palliative care-specific technology solution can make adding palliative care offerings more enticing. Whether an organization is providing palliative care as part of an interdisciplinary team, or if it includes nursing or social work documentation, a palliative platform builds in the flexibility for care providers to offer care and bill for their services in the current dynamic landscape. Further, it should integrate with hospice and home-based care offerings for providers that are already offering those care types.
The ability to capture data and outcomes is also working to make palliative care more readily available across the care continuum, Rose says.
鈥淚f you can鈥檛 prove your [palliative care] outcomes, you don鈥檛 have a program because there鈥檚 not a lot of funding for it,鈥� she says. 鈥淸The technology] is built with data in mind and being able to recognize the acuity of your patient, the improvements you鈥檝e made, reduction in hospitalizations, improving quality of life and all those metrics we look at from an operator鈥檚 perspective.鈥�
Ultimately, proving those outcomes will lead to greater adoption of the service, Rose says.
鈥淧alliative care fits all the macro health care quality goals. It will be really nice to be able to say, 鈥楾his is evidence-based palliative care.鈥� Defining that and characterizing that is going to be really important. It鈥檚 making waves. It鈥檚 proving outcomes. It鈥檚 getting a lot of attention, as it should be.鈥�
Editorial Note: This article was originally published on .