Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Increased Focus on Hospice Reform
Do you hear the drums in the distance? They are beating louder and growing closer.
Unfortunately the solutions proposed are quite complex and far from evolved. Accountable Care Organizations, concurrent care models, and bundled payments won’t be mainstream in time to fix the growing budget expenditure. He rightly notes the shifting to a U-shaped curve of payment that increases payments at the beginning and end of hospice services may be somewhat helpful but that will not solve the entire issue. I’m glad he points out the frustrating reliance on prognostication as the cornerstone for eligibility. I’m a big fan of prognostication research, but it is clear we do not have the reliable prognostic tools as the Local Coverage Determination guidelines based on expert consensus from the NHPCO were proven to be broken in 1999 in a study by Fox that every pallaitive clinician should read. (Open Access PDF - Thanks JAMA!).
He is tough but overall fair on the non-profit vs for-profit issue, but I think he paints with a broad brush. Understandably, the nuances of but this conversation is better for a long form article. Make sure to give a listen to the podcast (15:22) where Stevenson goes into more detail and discusses competition on quality and transparency of choice, both of which will allow one to get past the straw-man arguments of profit status.
I think we can all support one of his concluding statements:
beneficiaries must continue to have access to these specialized services and providers. It would be a Pyrrhic victory if greater efficiency in end-of-life care were achieved at the expense of needed patient care. Consequently, the ultimate verdict concerning hospice's integration into the broader health care system will be determined by the quality of end-of-life care that patients receive.
Fox, E. et al. (1999). Evaluation of Prognostic Criteria for Determining Hospice Eligibility in Patients With Advanced Lung, Heart, or Liver Disease JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 282 (17), 1638-1645 DOI: 10.1001/jama.282.17.1638 (OPEN ACCESS)Stevenson, D. (2012). Growing Pains for the Medicare Hospice Benefit New England Journal of Medicine, 367 (18), 1683-1685 DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1208465 (OPEN ACCESS)
*Hopefully the picture doesn't confuse you young ones. The TV family is from "Growing Pains." which shares the same title as the NEJM article.
** Interesting tidbit - while looking up some pictures for the show, I did find this two-episode arc about Maggie's father coming for a visit and announcing he is dying, followed by an episode where Dr. Seaver takes Maggie away on a trip to deal with the death of her dad. Anyone have Season 1 of Growing Pains on DVD? Teachable TV moment?
