For Immediate Release:
January 19, 2020

Priorities include prioritizing COVID-19 relief, innovating on how serious-illness care is provided and improving access to high-quality hospice and palliative care.

(Alexandria, Va) – The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) sent a letter to President-elect Joseph Biden, highlighting the hospice and palliative care priorities NHPCO wishes the new Administration to address. The letter outlines a set of priority recommendations that NHPCO urges the Biden Administration to implement during their first 100 days in office as they require immediate attention:

1. 1. 1. Protect Patients and Families
         Hospice providers are front line health care workers who are increasingly being exposed to COVID-19. Hospice workers, hospice patients and their caregivers should be prioritized for receiving COVID-19 vaccinations as soon as they are available, and providers should be a priority in FEMA PPE distribution and testing. NHPCO also calls for extended regulatory flexibilities, paused audits, and expanded economic support and funding for bereavement care to ensure hospice providers can continue offering high quality care during the pandemic.
      2. Innovate How Serious Illness Care is Provided
         COVID-19 has shined a spotlight on the “holes” in care for seriously ill individuals and their families. Innovative approaches are needed to provide the “right care at the right time” for patients with serious illness and their families.To that end, NHPCO supports concurrent care with hospice, the creation of a community-based palliative care benefit, and expansion of advance care planning. NHPCO also asked that the Biden Administration halt implementation of the Medicare Advantage Value-Based Insurance Design (MA VBID) Model by at least one year to allow technical and operational issues to be addressed.  Hospice patients and their families deserve a demonstration that improves access to high quality care at the end of life.
      3. Improve Access to Hospice and Palliative Care
         To help more Americans access the person-centered care offered by hospice, NHPCO is working to reduce racial disparities in access and strengthen the hospice and palliative care workforce. NHPCO also encourages the removal of the six-month prognosis barrier to hospice and increasing hospice access in rural and underserved areas.

“The incoming Biden Administration has a golden opportunity to impact in the lives of the most vulnerable Americans. Hospice and palliative care providers, patients, and their caregivers deserve now more than ever the attention of federal policy makers to support people on the front lines of this global pandemic. We look forward to partnering with this administration on day one to move important policy changes from powerful ideas into immediate and effective actions,” said NHPCO President and CEO Edo Banach.

Download NHPCO’s Letter and NHPCO’s 2021 Policy Priorities.

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Media Contact:
Jon Radulovic
NHPCO Communications
Ph: 571-412-3973

Thoughts on Events in D.C.

January 7, 2021

I want to share a message with you all following the events of yesterday in Washington, DC.  NHPCO’s offices are only a few miles from the grounds of the Capitol building, a global symbol of our nation’s democracy. First, we are all safe.  Some of our staff live within the shadow of the U.S. Capitol, and yesterday’s events hit close to home.  Many of us watched with incredulity the events unfold in real time on television and via social media.

This should not be a partisan time, as much as a time that cuts to the core of what it means to be a democratic republic. What it means to be America.  Our democracy is integral to the fabric of this great nation. We have wide-ranging differences, but we are able to discuss and debate civilly as one nation. Free speech and the ability to gather in peaceful protest is afforded to us by the U.S. Constitution. Many nations across the globe do not have that freedom. We should celebrate that.  However, what happened yesterday in Washington, DC was not a peaceful protest but violence directed at the heart of our nation. It is important that we call it what it is.

Every year, many of our members – you and your colleagues – gather in the nation’s capital to walk the halls of Congress and meet with our legislators to advocate for the work that we as hospice and palliative care providers do to bring compassion and dignity to many people in communities of every kind. And many of us actively engage with our elected officials from our homes and offices to make our voices heard. The opportunity to be an integral part of America’s democracy is a privilege that we do not take for granted.

It was reassuring to see our elected officials gather back into the chambers of the U.S. Capitol yesterday evening to continue their work. It is also reassuring, and a good reminder of what the U.S. stands for, to go back to our founding document.  Let me share the preamble to the Constitution with you:

“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America.”

Some might question why yesterday’s actions are important to us. Yes, I know that we are hospice and palliative care professionals and advocates, but we are also people first.  As we continue to recover from so many challenges that presented themselves in 2020, we must continue to explore the ways that we can work together to improve and care for our nation using the skills at which we excel. As the nation’s best example of person-centered, interdisciplinary care, I think we can help show how we can work together with people that have different beliefs or backgrounds. We have lots of healing to do as a nation. We know something about that as well.

So onward, hospice and palliative care community.  Let’s keep leading, let’s not lose hope, and let’s move forward, together, for the good of the people we serve. I continue to be proud of the work you are doing every day and I feel honored to be working on your behalf.

Regards,
Edo Banach

For Immediate Release:
January 4, 2021

NHPCO Welcomes New Board Members in 2021

New Chair and Vice-Chair Lead the Executive Committee

(Alexandria, Va) – The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) is proud to welcome five new members to the organization’s board of directors and two individuals  returning for a second term. The full NHPCO board will meet for its first meeting of the year on January 27, 2021.

Joining the NHPCO board of directors for three-year terms are:

• • • Philip Chuang – Kaiser Permanente, Oakland, CA
    • Honey Goodman – Treasure Valley Hospice, Nampa, ID
    • Corina Tracy – Compassus, Brentwood, TN
    • Terri Warren – Providence St. Joseph Health, Tukwila, WA
    • Tracy Wood – Hospice of Chattanooga, Chattanooga, TN

Returning for a second term are:

• • • Samira Beckwith – Hope Healthcare, Fort Myers, FL
      
    • Balu Natarajan – Seasons Hospice and Palliative Care, Rosemont, IL

Executive Committee
The NHPCO board of directors 2021 executive committee is comprised of:

• • • Norman McRae, Chair – Caris HealthCare, Knoxville, TN
    • Melinda Gruber, Vice-Chair – Caring Circle, St. Joseph, MI
    • Edo Banach, President and CEO – NHPCO, Alexandria, VA
    • Elizabeth Fowler, Secretary – Bluegrass Care Navigators, Lexington, KY
    • Brian Jones, Treasurer – SHARE Foundation, El Dorado, AR
    • Balu Natarajan, At-large – Seasons Hospice and Palliative Care, Rosemont, IL
    • Tarrah Lowry, At-large – Sangre De Cristo Hospice & Palliative Care, Pueblo, CO
    • David Totaro, HAN Representative – BAYADA Home Health Care, Philadelphia, PA

Greg Wood, of Hospice of the Ozarks, will serve in an ex officio capacity as immediate past-chair.

Appreciation goes out to Reggie Bodnar of Carroll Hospice and Sandy Kuhlman of Hospice Care, Inc. who both concluded their terms on the NHPCO board at the end of 2020.

“NHPCO thanks all the new and existing board members for their dedicated service on behalf of our nation’s hospice and palliative care provider community as well as the millions of patients and family caregivers that benefit from the care that our diverse membership provides,” said NHPCO President and CEO Edo Banach. “Our board members come from programs that vary in size, structure, and service area and represent that wide range of organizations across the country that share our common goal of leading person- and family-centered care.”

A full list of NHPCO’s board of directors is available in the “About NHPCO” section of the organization’s website.

To learn more about hospice and palliative care, visit NHPCO’s CaringInfo.org website.

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Contact:
Jon Radulovic
NHPCO Communications
Ph: 571-412-3973