Our very own Robin Stawasz, LMSW and program development executive recently was interviewed by Stan Massey of Transcend Strategy Group. During the conversation, they discussed the emerging uses of telehealth and remote care tools used to improve care and the overall patient-family experience by offering more comprehensive monitoring and instant communication.
The leadership team at Acclivity Health recently wrote a peer reviewed article that was published in April issue of The American Journal of Managed Care. Here’s an excerpt of the abstract:
Palliative and hospice care services produce immense benefits for patients living with serious illness and for their families. Due to the national shift toward value-based payment models, health systems and payers share a heightened awareness of the need to incorporate palliative and hospice services into their service mix for seriously ill patient populations.
During the last decade, a tremendous amount of capital has been invested to better integrate information technology into healthcare. This includes development of technologies to promote utilization of palliative and hospice services. However, no coordinated strategy exists to link such efforts together to create a cohesive strategy that transitions from identification of patients through receipt of services.
Heart failure impacts 6.2 million American adults. With no cure, therapies aim to prevent progression and manage symptoms. Inclusion of palliative care (PC) helps improve symptoms and quality of life. Heart failure guidelines recommend the inclusion of PC in HF therapy, but referrals are often delayed.
During these historic times, many healthcare providers are struggling to provide care in the same ways they did before COVID-19 disrupted everyday lives. To alleviate these pressures and to facilitate continued support to fight COVID-19, the President instituted protocols to give governmental agencies, like the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the authority to invoke proactive methods to ease the strains being faced by providers without compromising care delivery. The emergency declarations were made on March 13, 2020, and a new set of blanket 1135 waivers inclusive of hospice was released March 30, 2020.
Read moreFor Jill Hofstede, whose 90-year-old mother has Alzheimer’s disease, news about the coronavirus becomes more terrifying every day.
Although the potential shortages of mechanical ventilators and intensive care beds have made headlines, Hofstede fears a surge of COVID-19 patients could deprive her mother of something far more basic should she contract the disease: relief from pain and suffering.
As COVID-19 continues to spread across our nation, Acclivity Health understands the growing concerns of hospice and palliative care organizations. Providers are having to limit their patient visits due to lack of staff, PPE supplies, and risk of exposure. Hospitals are transferring their seriously ill patients to hospice earlier in their effort to keep beds open for potential COVID-19 cases. As a result, hospices are seeing their census increase during this pandemic, requiring close monitoring and screening for COVID-19 while ensuring the safety of providers and their patients. To limit the spread of infection, providers must find a way to care for patients without being at the bedside.
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The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Primary Care First (PCF) model will start in 2021, including the Seriously Ill Population (SIP) model. The SIP program is designed to improve care for high-need, high-risk patients who currently receive fragmented or inadequate care. To do this, CMS will assign SIP patients to participating hospice programs, paying the providers to coordinate their care and avoid unnecessary hospitalizations.
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Health care technology firm Acclivity Health Solutions has designed a program to help hospice and palliative care providers prepare themselves for participation in the Primary Care First Serious Illness Population (SIP) payment model.
Technology helps with increasing efficiency, defining a patient’s needs, and gathering information before the appointment.
Palliative care physicians know that patients often have a number of questions for their doctors during their first appointment: What does my care plan look like now? How do you collaborate with my existing medical team? Can you help me achieve my quality-of-life goals? Without easily digestible, educational resources widely available, patients may have questions for weeks in between appointments until they are able to visit with their physician again. PCforMe is an online tool, available through the Acclivity Health platform, that uses interactive videos to educate patients and their caregivers about how palliative care works, its benefits, and clearly define their care plan goals. PCforMe’s palliative care questionnaires can be sent to new patients in advance of their appointments to help them collect their thoughts, which will often involve discussions that are stressful and potentially lifechanging. They can bring their completed conversation guide to their appointment, and their responses can be shared ahead of time with their physician, so all parties start the appointment on the same page. Knowing a patient’s goals and concerns in advance helps providers be more efficient with their time, and ensures the patient is able to fully participate in decision making.
Read morePCforMe simplifies palliative care, empowers patients, and increases satisfaction.
Historically, patients researching palliative care for the first time haven’t had the most helpful resources. Educational webpages tend to use medical terms, and often don’t explain the differences between palliative care and hospice. PCforMe’s interactivity seeks to personalize the education to the patient, and make their research relevant to them.
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