Resources - Palliative Healthcare | Advanced Illness | End-of-Life Care

CMS’s New Payment Models Pave Way for Better Primary Care

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently announced a new primary care payment model that will provide an alternative to Comprehensive Primary Care Plus. This new model, called Primary Care First, will be offered in 26 states and regions beginning Jan. 1, 2020. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar predicts that the models will enroll 25 percent of traditional Medicare beneficiaries and providers, who must apply to take part, and the program may roll out to all states after five years pending its success.

Here’s what CMS has released so far about their new initiative.

Benefits of Primary Care First

June 26, 2019/0 Comments/by Acclivity Health

The Unrealized Potential of Hospice and Palliative Care: Improving the Patient’s End-of-Life Journey

Less than 40 years ago, when you went to the Emergency Room at your local hospital, you had no idea what kind of doctor you’d see. Staff physicians in the hospital took shifts in the ER, so you might have an obstetrician casting your broken wrist or a psychiatrist treating your heart palpitations. Beginning in 1979, Emergency Medicine was recognized by the American Board of Specialties. Over the next decades, EM specialists became thoroughly integrated into the continuum of care, so that today, patients coming into to the ER can expect treatment and a proper diagnosis from the right physician.

June 25, 2019/0 Comments/by Acclivity Health

Acclivity in the News

Hospice As The Hub: Acclivity’s Vision for a New Care Model with AI

Population health is a relevant topic in our space, and there are technology providers that are taking it a step further with machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI). I had the opportunity to meet with Jeremy Powell, CEO and Founder from Acclivity Health Solutions to discuss their vision for the post-acute space and how they are utilizing data to support that vision.

Continue reading article from Healthcare at Home: The Rowan Technology Report.

June 17, 2019/0 Comments/by Acclivity Health

Blog Post, Suggested Reading

Death in America : The Need for a Culture Shift in Advanced Illness Management

Eighty percent. That’s how many Americans would like to die at home. But despite the fact that 70 percent of Americans die from chronic illnesses[1], giving them time to anticipate their deaths, over 50 percent still die in hospitals or nursing homes.[2] Of the Medicare patients who died in 2016, only 48% received hospice services at the time of death[3], even though every patient was eligible for six months of hospice care.

June 14, 2019/0 Comments/by Acclivity Health

Blog Post, Thought Leadership

Palliative Care vs. Hospice by John Mulder, MD

What Is Palliative Care?

Palliative care is a discipline of skilled medical care designed to relieve suffering and improve the quality of life for patients and families living with serious, advanced, or life-defining illnesses. It can be available to patients of any age with serious illnesses of all types, at any stage of illness, providing care in all locations. It is typically supported by insurance plans. We believe that despite having a serious – possibly terminal – diagnosis, there is the potential of experiencing meaningful quality of life. Though maintaining an understanding of the reality of a serious illness, the focus is on clarifying a patient’s values, wishes, hopes, and dreams, and creating the optimal care environment that allows them to move beyond potential pain and suffering and realize opportunities for joy in life. It’s about living, not dying.

December 7, 2018/1 Comment/by Acclivity Health

Blog Post

Ebb and Flow by Dianne Gray

As I walked on an early summer day in South Florida, I listened to Duncan Sheik’s “She Runs Away.” I caught a phrase about “symptoms” and then “the darkness comes, and the darkness goes,” followed by “happiness ain’t never how you think it should be so.”

August 21, 2018/0 Comments/by Acclivity Health