New Hawai’i Medicaid Palliative Care Benefit
On May 7, 2024, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) approved a new State Plan Amendment (SPA) in Hawai’i to cover community-based palliative care services through Medicaid, making it the first state in the nation to do so. The approved policy document adds community-based palliative care as a preventive service, with the approval timing being back-dated to January 1, 2023. It defines palliative care and the required services and details the composition of the palliative care team—including scope and minimum qualifications, as well as relevance to adult and/or pediatric palliative care.
This novel SPA is the result of multi-stakeholder collaboration over many years. It is expected to serve as a road map for other states that are exploring new ways to pay for interdisciplinary, community-based palliative care.