About NAHA
The National Alliance for Hospice Access (NAHA) is a non-profit grassroots coalition of over 500 independent hospices in 32 states and individual hospice advocates who are working toward a single goal: sensible hospice reform that will improve patient access and make better use of Medicare’s scarce resources, including legislative reform of the 1982 hospice cap that is devastating our ability to serve eligible patients. We are supported solely by contributions from our independent hospices and individual supporters; NAHA has no “deep pockets” funding sources and our officers and staff are unpaid volunteers.
NAHA members include hospices from the not-for-profit and the for-profit sectors; from urban areas and from rural communities. Hospice vendors have joined NAHA, as have volunteers and Board Members. We have at least four things in common:
- we know that the hospice cap harms patient access to end-of-life care, especially for non-cancer patients in rural, minority and economically disadvantaged communities;
- we know that hospices offering a timely, informed choice to medically-eligible hospice patients will hit the aggregate hospice cap;
- we know that “managing the cap” in fact means withholding hospice care from eligible, terminally ill seniors; and
- we share a sense of urgency about senisble, fiscally responsible hospice reform.
Though recently formed, NAHA has decades worth of experience behind it. Our consultants include Sheppard Mullin Richter and Hampton, an AmLaw 100 firm with special expertise in healthcare law including fraud and abuse and Medicare billing compliance.
While others in our industry have indicated a passing interest in studying the effects of the Cap on hospice care, NAHA members know its chilling outcomes from personal experience. The only way to “manage the Cap” is to ration care to eligible non-cancer patients, something that we, as serious providers of hospice services, refuse to do.
What distinguishes good intentions from results is competence, energy, commitment and a sense of urgency. This is what NAHA offers, and this is why we are optimistic about our chances for success.
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To join NAHA, click here
