The Critical Competencies Hospice Leaders Must Build for Value-Based Care Success | Part One

Value-based care isn’t just changing how hospice gets paid—it’s redefining what hospice leaders must be capable of delivering.

In Part One of The Critical Competencies Hospice Leaders Must Build for Value-Based Care Success, host Chris Comeaux sits down with Dr. Jessica Hubbs, Chief Clinical Officer at Advanced Care Innovations, to explore the accelerating shift from fee-for-service healthcare toward models built around outcomes, total cost of care, and coordinated care delivery.  Dr. Hubbs explains why emerging models such as LEAD (Long-term Enhanced ACO Design) matter to hospice and palliative care leaders—and why the movement upstream into serious illness and home-based care could represent both a competitive headwind and an extraordinary opportunity.

The conversation challenges hospice organizations to think beyond the traditional six-month benefit and consider how their strongest competencies—advanced care planning, complex conversations, understanding patient goals and values, interdisciplinary care, and end-of-life expertise—could be brought upstream to serve high-needs patients earlier.  But succeeding in this new environment will require hospice organizations to add capabilities as well, particularly end-to-end clinical care, complex primary care management, financial-risk readiness, data-informed decision-making, and true collaboration with ACOs and other risk-bearing partners.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway is that hospice does not need to abandon what it does best to succeed in value-based care.  Instead, the opportunity is to combine the strengths of hospice and palliative care with the capabilities of home-based primary care, creating a more holistic model that surrounds patients and families throughout the serious illness journey.

5 Key Takeaways

• Value-based care is becoming increasingly important for hospice leadership.  CMS's broader direction toward value-based arrangements means hospice executives need to understand emerging models and determine where their organizations fit within the evolving serious illness ecosystem.
• Moving upstream is both a threat and an opportunity.  Home-based primary care and palliative models can potentially reduce downstream hospice utilization, but hospice organizations also have an opportunity to bring their expertise to patients earlier.
• Hospice's traditional competencies are highly valuable.  Advanced care planning, end-of-life expertise, difficult conversations, and understanding patient wishes and values can strengthen broader serious illness and home-based care models.
• Clinical capability must expand beyond symptom management.  Organizations seeking direct participation in value-based models will need end-to-end clinical capabilities, including complex primary care and coordinated management of high-needs patients.
• Collaboration may become a competitive advantage.  ACOs are looking for hospice and palliative organizations willing to operate as genuine care partners—sharing and coordinating care plans rather than functioning in isolated silos.
  
  

The future of hospice may depend on how effectively leaders take what hospice already does exceptionally well—and build the capabilities to deliver that value earlier.  Discover where the greatest opportunities are emerging, what ACOs and risk-bearing organizations are looking for in hospice partners, and which competencies your organization should begin developing now.

And don’t miss Part Two coming Friday, where the conversation continues around what hospice leaders need to build, measure, and prioritize to thrive in the rapidly evolving value-based care landscape.

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