Welcome to NAHA

Welcome

IF YOU BELIEVE IN HOSPICE, WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT

The National Alliance for Hospice Access (NAHA) is a grassroots coalition of over 500 hospices, founded to address the Hospice Cap Crisis, a regulatory inequity that threatens hospices’ ability to continue to provide quality care to eligible, terminally ill patients.

NAHA members are independent family-owned and community-based hospices that care for tens of thousands of terminal patients annually, largely in rural, minority and economically disadvantaged communities.

NAHA hospice owners don’t have deep pockets and cannot survive without urgent action by Congress.

THE PROBLEM…

Conflicting Medicare laws, and seriously flawed patient eligibility standards, are pushing hundreds of independent hospices into bankruptcy.

Tens of thousands of terminally ill patients in rural, minority, and economically disadvantaged communities will lose access to cost-effective end-of-life care.

Thousands of high quality healthcare jobs will disappear.

THE SOLUTION

NAHA supports 2009 hospice reform legislation that will ensure continued patient access, stabilize independent hospices, and save taxpayers billions of dollars.

Introduce evidence-based patient eligibility criteria for hospice care that will improve timely patient access and save Medicare more than $5 billion over the next 5 years.

Reform the existing, flawed cap with a “pay as you go” savings system that:

Provides immediate relief for financially threatened hospice operations while generating an additional $1.6 billion in Medicare cost savings over 5 years.

Eliminates any financial incentive for longer patient stays

Reallocate per diem reimbursement to better reflect hospice costs for the first and last days of a patient’s hospice stay and repeal the phase-out of the hospice Budget Neutrality Adjustment Factor (BNAF).