Community-Based Palliative Care Standards: Rationale and Impact 

In 2016, the Coalition for Compassionate Care of California and Blue Shield of California convened a group of experts in palliative care, payment, and health care policy to develop the California Consensus Standards for Community-Based Palliative Care. The Standards describe minimum requirements for multiple aspects of service delivery and benefit design.
With support from the California Health Care Foundation, in 2018-2020 four health plans that offer community-based palliative care through Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, or commercial insurance products, and their contracted palliative care providers, participated in an evaluation of the Standards. In this first of a 3-webinar series, we will look at why consistency matters, what types of variation were diminished when contracts met or exceeded the Standards, and what types of variation persisted.
Audience
Content is appropriate for individuals who have an interest in increasing access to effective, sustainable palliative care services, including policymakers, policy advocates at the state and national level, health plan leaders, palliative care providers, and health services researchers.