The pandemic has accelerated trends moving the delivery of care into the home or community. Yet, care at home largely remains the province of better-resourced individuals, due to limited funding by government programs. Medicaid, the federal/state program of health care for people of lower-income, has the potential to address these equity issues through waivers or plan amendments.
With little fanfare, States have been innovating new models of care within their Medicaid programs, such as community-based palliative care, to support people with serious illness and improve health equity. For example, California initiated the trend, and Hawaii has a multi-year effort to implement improved benefits for people with serious illnesses. Several states are actively working on a similar approach, and others have expressed interest.
C-TAC is partnering with the Petrie-Flom Center at Harvard Law School to explore the opportunities for states to bring a broad range of palliative care services to seriously ill persons, particularly through changes to their Medicaid programs. This virtual roundtable features experts engaged in this effort, including state and federal officials, about the progress to date, key learnings, and prognosis for success. See Presentation Below.
The Big Picture: Why Medicaid?
Part 1
- Hope Glassberg, Decipher Health Strategies (Federal Medicaid policy expert)
- Wendy Fox-Grage, Project Director, National Academy for State Health Policy
- Anastasia Dodson, Division Admin, State of California Dept of Healthcare Services
- Aditi Mallick, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Medicaid and CHIP, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is the featured speaker addressing new Medicaid initiatives
- Zirui Song, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School (Moderator)
Exploring Key Issues that Must be Addressed
Part 2
- Dr. Rae Seitz, Hui Pohala, and Kokua Mau (palliative care physician and industry leader)
- Allison Silvers, Center to Advance Palliative Care
- Elrycc Berkman, Senior Manager, Optumas
- Kathleen Kerr, Transforming Care Partners (palliative care performance and outcomes expert)
- Torrie Fields, Votive Health (benefit design, payment and policy expert) (Moderator)
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