Phillip Rodgers

Discipline: Physician

Funding awarded to: University of Michigan

Advancing Palliative Care in Alternative Payment Models

Alternative Payment Models (APMs) provide significant financial incentives for providers to improve care quality and control cost, through innovation and investment in high value services like palliative care. As a result, palliative care teams have substantial opportunities both to participate in palliative care-specific APMs, as well as to consult, collaborate and/or contract with health systems and provider organizations participating in other APMs The specific goals of this project are to: 1) develop and disseminate an Alternative Payment Model for palliative care providers; 2) promote palliative care within other emerging APMs; and 3) pursue evaluation and sustainability strategies for palliative care provider participation in APMs. Activities to achieve these goals will be coordinated with existing national stakeholder organizations, and supported by local mentorship and national collaborators.

“The motivations that brought me to palliative care as a clinician also sparked my interest in policy and advocacy, and have led me to dive deeper into palliative care payment and delivery innovation starting almost a decade ago. My original interest was integrating palliative care in the Patient-Centered Medical Home. Through working with visionary leaders in the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM), the Michigan Primary Care Transformation Project (MiPCT), the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC), interspecialty colleagues at the American Medical Associate Relative Value Scale Update Committee (RUC) and others, I have been fortunate to evolve my interest more broadly into improving payment policy and care delivery innovation for patients with serious illness and their families.”