NHPCO President/CEO Meets with Nancy-Ann Min DeParle at W...( DeParle to Speak at National Hospice ...),Health

DeParle to Speak at National Hospice Leadership Conference on April 24

ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On Wednesday, April 8, J. Donald Schumacher, NHPCO president and CEO, joined an invitation-only meeting at the White House led by Nancy-Ann Min DeParle, the recently appointed Director of the White House Office of Health Care Reform and Counselor to the President. The invitation to this important meeting is an indicator of the commitment of the administration to including hospice and palliative care in healthcare reform initiatives.

Ms. DeParle asked Dr. Schumacher to discuss the potential opportunities that hospice could provide Medicare by increasing access to quality end-of-life care and reducing costs for the last year of life. The meeting was covered by C-SPAN and other federal news outlets.

"These issues - access to care and cost reduction - are ones that providers in the hospice community know very well. It's important that any exploration of healthcare reform include a discussion about the benefits that hospice and palliative care bring to the U.S. healthcare system," Schumacher said. "As we've said in some of our advocacy outreach, 'hospice provides more care that costs less,' and I was honored to be asked to share insights into the work we do."

Additionally, Ms. DeParle has graciously agreed to speak at NHPCO's upcoming Management and Leadership Conference in Washington, DC, which will be attended by more than 1,400 CEOs and managers who are running hospice and palliative care programs in the U.S. She will deliver remarks at the beginning of the plenary session on Friday, April 24, 2008. Possible issues she may discuss include potential ways hospice, and palliative care might be included in healthcare reform and an overview of the current healthcare reform activities in Washington.

Opportunities for conference attendees to learn more abou
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