Middle Tennessee nonprofit Alive Hospice has been selected to participate in the Medicare Care Choices Model, which allows eligible beneficiaries the option to elect to receive supportive care services typically provided by hospice while continuing to receive curative services at the same time.

Under current payment rules, Medicare and dually eligible beneficiaries are required to forgo curative care in order to receive services under the Medicare or Medicaid Hospice Benefit. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell recently announced this new program, which is part of a larger effort at HHS to transform the U.S. healthcare system to deliver better care more efficiently and to put patients at the center of that care.

Beginning in January 2016, eligible beneficiaries will receive comfort care measures and support from Alive Hospice, while receiving curative treatments from Tennessee Oncology. Initially, this new model of care will begin as a small pilot program. However, officials with Alive Hospice noted this could lead to a significant change in the delivery of care at the end of life should the pilot project be expanded to a larger pool of patients in the years to come.

“Before now, terminally ill patients have had to choose between comfort and cure. The Medicare Care Choices Model will give eligible patients the benefit of both rather than a choice of one or the other,” said Alive Hospice President and CEO Anna-Gene O’Neal. “Alive Hospice commends the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for exploring this new model of care, and we are honored to have been chosen as a participating provider.”

Tennessee Oncology CEO Jeff Patton, MD, added, “Tennessee Oncology understands the benefits of simultaneous curative and palliative care for cancer survivors. Survivorship begins the moment you are diagnosed with cancer.” He added that Tennessee Oncology was one of the first in the country to include hospice services as part of their treatment program.

All eligible hospices across the country were invited to apply to participate in the model. Due to robust interest, CMS expanded the model from an originally anticipated 30 Medicare-certified hospices to more than 140 participants and extended the duration of the model from three to five years. This is expected to enable as many as 150,000 eligible beneficiaries with advanced cancers, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, congestive heart failure, HIV/AIDS who receive services from participating hospices to experience new flexibility. Alive Hospice was the only Middle Tennessee hospice provider to be selected for the Medicare Care Choices Model during the recent announcement.

RELATED LINKS:

http://www.cms.gov/Newsroom/MediaReleaseDatabase/Fact-sheets/2015-Fact-sheets-items/2015-07-20.html.