Hawaiʻi has implemented the first community palliative care benefit in the United States for the state’s Medicaid beneficiaries, known as Hawaiʻi MedQuest Palliative Care Program. Effective, January 1, 2025, the state plan amendment benefit will allow clinically eligible individuals with serious illness to receive palliative care in their homes and other community settings in addition to hospital settings. The new benefit was enacted after a long-term stakeholder engagement process which identified palliative care in community settings as a priority need.

Services will include care plan development and implementation, clinical services focusing on pain and symptom relief, comprehensive management, and care coordination and communication, and can be provided via telemedicine as well as in-person visits.

The new benefit includes several goals for individuals with serious illnesses including improving health equity, access to high-quality serious illness care and quality of life and decreasing symptom burden and avoidable utilization and spending.

Hawaiʻi’s efforts provide a blueprint for other states to follow as they approach their own exploration of community palliative care benefits.
Additional information and resources are available for review.