Posted June 14, 2023
Last week, four U.S. Senators introduced a bipartisan bill that would direct CMMI to develop a palliative care-specific payment model demonstration.
The Expanding Access to Palliative Care Act calls on the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) to develop and test a care and payment model to provide home and community-based palliative care and care coordination for high-risk, seriously ill beneficiaries. Providers of all kinds with palliative care expertise would be eligible to participate, including hospices and home health agencies.
The bill’s sponsors include Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), John Barrasso (R-Wy.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), and Deb Fischer (R-Neb.). The four legislators in 2019 co-founded the Senate’s bipartisan Comprehensive Care Caucus to focus on legislation and policy to raise awareness of and improve access to palliative care.
Among the bill’s priorities is ensuring that patients can access palliative services earlier in their disease trajectory, according to Rosen.
“Palliative care has been shown to improve health outcomes and quality of life, but unfortunately, for seniors, it is only currently available to patients in hospice,” Rosen told Palliative Care News in an email. “That’s why I’m introducing bipartisan legislation to expand Medicare coverage of palliative care, making it available to seniors earlier in the diagnosis and treatment process. As a co-founder of the Senate’s Comprehensive Care Caucus, I’ll always work to improve the quality of life for patients and their families.”
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