Whitehouse Introduces Bill to Improve Care for Patients with Advanced Illnesses

Press Release

At a hearing of the Senate Special Committee on Aging today, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse unveiled a bill to improve care for Medicare beneficiaries with advanced illnesses like Alzheimer's disease, cancer, and heart disease. Approximately 90 million Americans are living with advanced illness, and that number is expected to more than double in the next 25 years. Whitehouse's Removing Barriers to Person-Centered Care Act would promote better coordination between health care providers, and place greater emphasis on the preferences of Medicare beneficiaries with advanced illnesses.

"Too many Rhode Island Medicare patients battling difficult illnesses are struggling to get the right care at the right time," said Whitehouse. "We need to break down the barriers between patients and the care they need. Because so many of the rules and incentives in our health care system are tied to the payment structure, we should design payment systems that support new models of coordinated care that are focused on human beings and not some rule or regulation."

"As a hospice and palliative medicine physician I have the honor of providing care to patients in the last months and years of their lives," said Dr. Kate Lally, Chief of Palliative Care and Hospice Medical Director for Care New England Health System, Medical Director of the Integra Accountable Care Organization, and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Alpert Medical School of Brown University, who testified at the hearing. "It is also through this lens that I view the gaps our sickest patients often fall through and am honored to participate in this important discussion as Senator Whitehouse and the members of the Special Committee on Aging lead the way to changing how we care for patients with serious illness."

Whitehouse's legislation would establish a pilot program administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) made up of twenty "advanced care collaboratives" of affiliated health care providers and community-based social service organizations. Collaboratives would receive a planning grant to assess the needs of the population of patients it would serve; to purchase or upgrade health information technology to facilitate better coordination of care between providers; and to support education and training on documenting and communicating beneficiary treatment preferences and goals.

Once planning is complete, collaboratives would enter a three-year payment agreement with Medicare to provide coordinated, high-quality care for their target patient population. Under the terms of the pilot program, CMS would waive regulations to promote innovative care for patients with advanced illness.

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