Cost Savings and Enhanced Hospice Enrollment with a Home-Based Palliative Care Program Implemented as a Hospice-Private Payer Partnership

摘要

Background: In the United States, 5 of the population is responsible for nearly half of all health care expenditures, with a large concentration of spending driven by individuals with expensive chronic conditions in their last year of life. Outpatient palliative care under the Medicare Hospice Benefit excludes a large proportion of the chronically ill and there is widespread recognition that innovative strategies must be developed to meet the needs of the seriously ill while reducing costs.