Question

List three reasons why the demand for palliative care will continue to increase.

Answer 1

Ans) The evolution and growth of palliative care and hospice in the United States have resulted from the combined investments of both the public and the private sectors.

- The twenty-five-year-old Medicare hospice benefit exemplifies the role and impact of palliative care at the end of life and the new delivery and payment models encouraged by the Affordable Care Act and aimed at a high-risk high-need target population have the potential to strengthen palliative care capacity in the acute, postacute, and long-term care settings for seriously ill patients who are not dying. Substantial private-sector contributions exceeding $300 million in the last twenty-five years have created the new field of palliative care outside hospice and are reflected in the growth of hospital palliative care services, education and training for health professionals, and formal recognition of subspecialty status for physicians and nurses.

- Major health care organizations such as the American Medical Association's nationally disseminated physician education initiative Education for Physicians in End-of-Life Care and the American Hospital Association's annual Circle of Life awards for quality palliative care programs have also made sustained and influential commitments to advancing access to quality palliative care for the seriously ill.

- Free from the constraints limiting government-funded health insurance, commercial and integrated health plans have experimented with creative payment models resulting in better value by, for example, allowing access to simultaneous hospice and curative therapies as well as coverage of complex care coordination and home-based palliative care services.

- The combined and sustained commitment of both the private and the public sectors will be necessary to bring the palliative care innovation to scale in the United States.