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Providers of home health services, palliative care and hospice care often express disappointment and confusion regarding referral patterns by physicians. Many providers feel physicians don’t refer to them as early as they should or may be missing the full benefits they can provide to patients and families alike.

What are common key barriers that get in the way of physicians making referrals to home-based care providers? How can providers better educate and communicate with physicians to break down those barriers and enhance the care patients receive?

Special guest Michael Paletta, MD, FAAHPM, is Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President for Hospice of Michigan – the largest provider of hospice and palliative care services in that state. As a physician with a background in a wider range of healthcare, Dr. Paletta has decades of experience in collaborating with other physicians and understanding their mindset.  Dr. Paletta joins host Stan Massey (lead consultant of Transcend) to discuss physicians’ perspective on supportive care versus curative care and how to overcome barriers in gaining physician referrals.

Their conversation covers intriguing topics, including Dr. Paletta’s view on “buyer’s remorse” in today’s healthcare environment, the challenges of accurately predicting life expectancy with the interventions of modern medical, educating physicians on the full truth about palliative care and hospice services, and his hope for the new generation of physicians in seeing palliative medicine as the specialty it is – with referrals being the norm rather than the exception.