NHPCO NewsLine Spring 2020 - 9

some things to look for, some
ways to make an informed
decision for the program best
suited to care for her father.
I think we, as NHPCO, have a
responsibility to make sure that
people are making the best, most
informed decisions possible.

Journalist: Is there some sort of

sophistication that is necessary
now as the industry grows so
much?

Edo Banach: Well, we have about
1,200 member organizations
representing about 4,200 locations
in the U.S. So, I think one indication
of how sophisticated an entity is, is
whether it's willing to join an
association like ours and subject
themselves to scrutiny, to
oversight, to peer pressure. It's also
true that if it turns out that one of
our members is not providing high
quality care, and is not interested
in getting better, then it's not
beneath us to say maybe you
should go somewhere else.

But really our focus is on making
sure that we are an association
that helps people get better.
Because remember, if you're in
school and you're falling behind, it
does nobody any service to kick
you out. What we do is we
provide you with remedial
assistance, we provide you with
help to get better. Our role is to
highlight the folks who are
excellent and to help the folks
that want to be excellent become
excellent. That's one of the
reasons why we've worked so
closely with CMS to say we need

to enhance oversight. Because if
you're not actually committed to
providing care, let alone highquality care, you shouldn't be in
business.

Journalist: Are there specific

programs NHPCO offers?

Edo Banach: We provide our

membership with a wide range of
tools, resources and educational
offerings to help them hone their
skills - in all aspects of operating
a hospice and palliative care
organization. One particular
thing that we're working on and
are very excited about is our new
Quality Connections, a program
that will help our members wrap
their arms around all aspects of
quality with the goal of provided
the best person- and familycentered care possible. While
Quality Connections will roll out
over 2020 into 2021, we are
launching the first component,
the Hospice Quality Certificate
Program as a part of our
upcoming Leadership and
Advocacy Conference. (See page
14 for more about Quality
Connections.)

Journalist: Has competition

been good for the consumer?

Edo Banach: Yes and no. It used

to be hospice was a word and a
hospice was an entity in your
community and if you were
choosing hospice, you'd know that
this was the entity that was
available. Now when you use the
word hospice in Boise, it can
mean any one of three, 30 or 40
or 50 different entities. So on

...if you're not
actually committed
to providing care, let
alone high-quality
care, you shouldn't
be in business.

that level, unless we enhance the
information that's available and
the transparency that's available,
more choice is not necessarily
going to be good because some
people are going to be making a
poor choice. However, more
choice is good when it comes to
ready access to care, when it
comes to culturally appropriate
and sensitive care. It really does
depend on the nature and the
quality of the providers. But
generally speaking, additional
choices have been good for
quality. We just need to marry
that with more tools for
consumers to make educated
choices.

Journalist: What do you tell

people to look for? That sort of
telltale sign of a quality hospice
agency?

Newsline / Spring 2020

9
NHPCO NewsLine Spring 2020

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