HJNO May/Jun 2021

Hospice Compare to allows consumers an opportunity to compare hospice metric scores prior to enrollment. Another resource is our website (www.LMHPCO.org ) and toll- free phoneline at (888) 546-1500, allowing consumers and practitioners another way of getting their questions answered. Recent developments with regard to hos- pice care in Louisiana include: 1. Medicaid revised its policies at the end of 2020 regarding Pediatric Concurrent Care, ensuring any patients under 21 the right to receive both curative and hospice care, reimbursed separately by Medicaid. 2. The federal government now allows Medicare Advantage programs to “carve in” hospice services (although no Medicare Advantage programs in Louisiana included hospice in their 2021 menu of services, we antici- pate this to change within the next 24 months). 3. Finally, Louisiana will pilot, along with 25 other states, a new three-year Medi- care demonstration project in 2021, identified as “Primary Care First” and allowing hospices teams to become the primary care provider for those Medicare beneficiaries with advance and serious illness but lacking a pri- mary care provider to navigate them through their illness.