iris articles - kn

Approximately 1.7 million people in the United States are diagnosed with cancer every year.  Individuals with advanced cancer are faced with challenging treatment decisions. Their choices are highly influenced by their understanding of the disease course and their prognosis. Individuals facing a diagnosis of advanced cancer should have a clear understanding of their medical plan of care. To ensure patient-centred care, palliative care interventions should account for individuals’ unique care goals and preferences, key components of Advance Care Planning (ACP). 

Iris (“Iris”), the leading provider of Advance Care Planning (ACP) solutions for health plans and providers is working with Scripps Health, a fully integrated delivery system, to offer ACP services to their Medicare Advantage (MA) members.

In a recent study published in Health Affairs, researchers reviewed 150 studies published between 2011 and 2016 that looked at the proportion of adults who completed advance directives. Of nearly 800,000 people, 37 percent completed some kind of advance directive. Of those, 29 percent completed living wills, 33 percent filed health care proxies and 32 percent remained “undefined,” meaning the type of advance directive wasn't specified or was combined.Historically,  one in three U.S. adults have engaged in advance care planning and/or completed advanced directive documents, intended to specify the kinds of medical treatments they might wish to receive if they were incapacitated or no longer able to express their wishes—and who they might choose to speak on their behalf in such circumstances.

The Centers of Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) created the Five-Star Quality Rating System to drive improvements in Medicare quality and to help consumers and caregivers easily compare the performance of Medicare Advantage (MA) plans. Ratings emphasize patient care and satisfaction, health outcomes, and patient or member feedback. 

June 25, 2021 – Austin, Texas — Iris, the leading provider of Advance Care Planning (ACP) solutions for health plans and providers, has been selected by Healthfirst, one of New York’s largest not-for-profit health insurers to provide its comprehensive suite of ACP services that are tailored to the needs of healthy, chronically-ill and seriously ill members. The goal is to provide universal access to advanced care planning to members who are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid as part of Healthfirst’s value-based care model.

One of the goals of Advance Care Planning (ACP) , including the facilitated, remote, virtual goals-of-care conversations that are offered by Iris, is the completion of a legally recognized document called an Advance Directive (AD). Three common forms for advance directives are the Living Will, Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care, also referred to as Medical Power of Attorney (MPOA), and Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST).

Iris, the leading provider of Advance Care Planning (ACP) solutions for health plans and at-risk providers announces the launch of Empower, a self-guided online ACP application. The Iris Empower platform simplifies the ACP process with guiding prompts and supportive education. Auto-generated advance directives are shared with family members and health care providers with the click of a button. The Empower platform enables individuals who are healthy or early on in their patient journey to engage in healthcare decision-making, ensuring that they receive future care that aligns with their values and goals.

Hospices have contended with two agents of industry-wide change at the start of 2021: access to value-based payment models and a global pandemic. As hospices sought ways to balance the human touch with technology, they’ve refocused efforts around advance care planning, a key element of those value-based models. Those services are one more area in which hospices have leveraged technology to advance their goals with limited access to patients.

Conversations about one’s fundamental values, hopes for the future, goals for health care in extreme situations, and treatment preferences for various future scenarios are best held at a leisurely pace, not in the midst of a crisis. These wide-ranging discussions may require multiple iterations as people circle around serious yet hypothetical and far-distant prospects. Generally speaking, earlier is better. But what if these conversations about a person’s future goals of care never happen until the crisis hits—when the future is emphatically now? Perhaps the individual lands in the ICU following a traumatic accident or flare-up of disease, no longer able to participate in conversations about their treatment wishes and the values that could help to inform them.

Caring for critically ill individuals during a medical crisis involves complex decision-making on the part of both healthcare providers and families. Communication strategies aimed at facilitating decision-making for individuals and surrogate decision-makers have shown an improvement in patient and family emotional outcomes. Interventions that target increasing the frequency and quality of communication about future medical care can ensure that care remains patient-centered and is respectful of individual preferences and values.