Nathan Adelson Hospice joins new partnership

Nathan Adelson Hospice announced Monday it has joined forces with six of the nation’s largest nonprofit advanced illness providers to form Advanced Illness Partners and participate in a new model of care from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation.

One of CMMI’s most prominent new models, Direct Contracting, allows organizations to accept financial risk and make use of new flexibilities and quality improvement incentives to better serve Medicare beneficiaries with complex and chronic illness.

Advanced Illness Partners is among 51 entities nationwide designated by CMMI to participate in this new program. Organizations participating in the model are committed to providing high-value, comprehensive care to high-need Medicare beneficiaries and are willing to accept risk for the most complex patients in the U.S. health care system.

“Nathan Adelson Hospice has been an industry leader for over 40 years, and we are proud to be a founding member of this important new initiative,” said Karen Rubel, president and CEO of Nathan Adelson Hospice.

AIP is comprised of seven organizations from Arizona, Florida, the District of Columbia, Virginia, Ohio, Nevada and Oregon which have extensive experience in caring for those with advanced chronic illness through largely home-based, community-oriented care. The partners currently serve more than 60,000 Medicare beneficiaries annually and have prior success in value-based models such as Independence at Home, Program for All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly and the Medicare Care Choices Model.

AIP organizations have provided home-based care in a cost-efficient manner for many years. Now, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the consistently stated preferences of many seniors to “age in place,” AIP is excited to show just how effective this model of care can be in meeting patients’ needs.

Eric De Jonge, director of geriatrics at Capital Caring Health and chief medical officer for Advanced Illness Partners, said “We’re excited to participate in CMMI’s innovative program to bring advanced illness care upstream and serve patients with complex, chronic disease in the home setting for the long term. As nonprofit providers, our network allows us to remain community-based while also sharing best practices and economies to scale to invest in tools that help us improve care and lower costs of care for high-needs patients.”

The Advanced Illness Partners include Pure Healthcare, a program from Ohio’s Hospice; Geriatric Solutions, a program of the Hospice of the Valley in Arizona; Hope Healthcare in Fort Myers, Florida; Housecall Providers, a part of the CareOregon family; Cornerstone Hospice in Central Florida; and Capital Caring Health in D.C., Maryland and Virginia along with Nathan Adelson Hospice. All seven organizations are excited to learn from each other and share best practices in treating patients.

Medicare beneficiaries looking for coordinated and comprehensive care may seek to enroll in the new program by visiting AdvancedIllnessPartners.org.

For more information on Advanced Illness Partners or the collaboration please contact Capital Caring Health Director of Population Health Jacqueline Kimmell at jkimmell@capitalcaring.org