CMS has released the participants in the 2022 Medicare Advantage Value-Based Insurance Design (VBID) model, including 13 Medicare Advantage organizations (MAOs) participating in the Hospice Benefit Component. That’s up from nine participants in 2021, the initial year.
These 13 organizations will test the inclusion of the Part A hospice benefit in MA benefits through 115 plan benefit packages (PBPs), up from 53 PBPs in 2021, and in 461 counties, up from 206 counties in 2021, according to a
CMS news release.
In participating in this voluntary model component, MAOs are incorporating the Medicare hospice benefit into MA covered benefits while offering comprehensive palliative care services outside the hospice benefit for enrollees with serious illness.
Each participating MAO included as part of their palliative care strategy the following: palliative care consults, comprehensive care assessments and services provided by an interdisciplinary care team, care planning and goals of care discussions, advance care planning, 24/7 access and support, psychosocial and spiritual support, pain and symptom management, medication reconciliation, caregiver support and a focus on ensuring access to social services and community resources.
In addition, participating MAOs are able to provide individualized, clinically appropriate transitional concurrent care through in-network providers and offer hospice-specific supplemental benefits.