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Advocates Rally in DC for the Future of Hospice: NHPCO and HAN Amplify Provider Voices on Capitol Hill

For Immediate Release
PHOTO LINK
June 13, 2024

(Alexandria, VA) – More than 100 hospice and palliative care advocates from across the country met with over 150 congressional offices this week to discuss key legislative and regulatory priorities for ensuring and expanding access to hospice and palliative care. The meetings were part of Hospice Action Week, hosted in Washington, DC by the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) and its advocacy affiliate, the Hospice Action Network (HAN).

Hospice Action Week brings together leaders, advocates, and supporters from across the country to unite as one voice to drive positive, legislative change for the betterment of the Medicare Hospice Benefit. This year’s events included a virtual component, giving advocates who were not able to attend in person the opportunity to write letters of support to their Members of Congress on key policy priorities including program integrity measures, telehealth flexibilities, workforce issues, and more.

“The cornerstone of effective advocacy is storytelling. It’s about sharing why hospice holds personal significance and why serious illness and end-of-life care policy should resonate with our lawmakers,” said Logan Hoover, NHPCO’s VP of Policy & Government Relations. “From Hawaii to Rhode Island, advocates from 35 diverse states came to DC this year. The relationships they’re building with Members of Congress hold the potential to shape the future of the healthcare landscape.”

This year, advocates focused on a variety of key issues during their congressional meetings:

      • Protecting care for patients and families through program integrity efforts, fixes to the hospice Special Focus Program to ensure proper identification of poor-performing hospices, telehealth flexibilities, expansion of bereavement services, and ensuring access to care for our nation’s Veterans.
      • Making meaningful benefit improvements to increase access and advance health equity by addressing workforce crisis by allowing practitioners to perform at the top of their licensure, reforming the outdates six-month prognosis barrier, enabling concurrent care, and advancing health equity by removing structural barriers to care.
      • Innovation in serious illness care delivery and payment by building upon previous, successful demonstration models through a community-based palliative care benefit and ensuring a seamless ending to the hospice VBID component through support for providers.
      • Protecting access and expanding quality by ensuring providers can offer the right care at the right time by securing an adequate level of reimbursement and ensuring resources are going directly to patient care by eliminating burdensome regulations that jeopardize access while strengthening effective program integrity measures to increase care quality.

In addition to advocate meetings with congressional offices on Wednesday, Hospice Action Week also featured various other meetings of hospice and palliative care leaders from across the country. Tuesday’s highlights included a Meeting of the Minds bringing together national leaders from NHPCO’s We Honor Veterans (WHV) program as well as a Combined Issues Lunch where advocates learned how to bridge the partisan gap in Congress by hearing from congressional staffers Brayden Woods (Congresswoman Van Duyne’s office, R-TX) and Asha Samuel (Congressman Blumenauer’s office, D-OR) on the importance of finding bipartisan solutions to protect and enhance the Medicare Hospice Benefit. The evening training included a presentation from Brad Fitch of the Congressional Management Foundation on how to build upon connections with one’s representatives after the fly-in is over.

HAN also presented three MyHospice Ambassador annual awards on Tuesday, recognizing advocates who stood out, led by example, and took action in 2023.

      • 2023 Impactful Voice Award: Elleah Kes Tooker, Project Management Specialist, Indiana University School of Medicine
      • 2023 Mentor of the Year: Paul Ledford, President & CEO, Florida Hospice & Palliative Care Association
      • 2023 Ambassador of the Year: Tim Ingram, EVP of Interoperability, Axxess

New this year was the presentation of two inaugural awards:

      • 2024 Advocate for Change Award – an award which celebrates a standout individual who boldly tackles challenges in their community by identifying and championing legislative solutions. This year’s honoree is Denise Formolo, Dickinson County Veteran Service Officer and Vice President of the Michigan Association of County Veteran Counselors who identified the issue that led to the creation of H.R. 234/ S. 1330 “Gerald’s Law Act;” a bill which was advocated for during Hospice Action Week.
      • 2024 Courageous Conversations Award – this recognition is presented, when merited, to a standout individual who has inspired and educated the public on the value of hospice. This year’s honoree is former US President Jimmy Carter who sparked a national dialogue when he made the courageous decision to publicly share that he elected hospice care for his end-of-life journey.

On Thursday, the NHPCO Council of States, a network of leaders of state hospice and palliative care organizations from across the country, met for its annual meeting and recognized two state associations for their exceptional contributions with the 2024 NHPCO Council of States Trailblazer Award. Established in 2012, the NHPCO Trailblazer Award recognizes state organizations demonstrating high levels of excellence, innovation, and leadership that expand access to hospice and palliative care, promote quality, and increase awareness. This year’s honorees are:

      • Kokua Mau, Hawaii
      • California Hospice and Palliative Care Association

NHPCO and HAN celebrate the achievements of this year’s Hospice Action Week on behalf of hospice and palliative care providers nationwide. Looking forward, NHPCO and HAN’s advocacy will continue to evolve as we fight on behalf of the greater serious-illness care community.

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About NHPCO
The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) is the nation’s largest and oldest membership association for providers who care for people affected by serious and life-limiting illness. Our members deliver and expand access to high-quality, person-centered interdisciplinary care to millions of Americans. NHPCO provides education and resources to support that mission. Together with our advocacy partner, the Hospice Action Network (HAN), we serve as the leading voice advancing public policy to improve serious-illness and end-of-life care, while our CaringInfo program provides free resources to educate and empower patients and caregivers. nhpco.org

About HAN
The Hospice Action Network is the advocacy affiliate of NHPCO. HAN works with provider members, state organizations, national healthcare organizations and other relevant stakeholders to advance the NHPCO legislative and regulatory agenda. HAN advocates urge Congress and the Administration to support policies that promote equitable access to high-quality hospice and palliative care for patients and families.

Press Contact
Elyssa Katz
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