Clinical Program Spotlight:
Supportive Care Helps Patients
Manage Serious Illness
Posted by PHN Communications | Jul 22, 2024 | Featured News
The Peoples Health Supportive Care Program is available to help your Peoples Health patients be active at home in addressing and managing the acute symptoms of a serious illness or condition. Our clinical team works with a patient’s primary care provider to identify self-management interventions to enhance quality of life and engages with other providers to arrange needed services, including in-home services when required.
The program does not replace, but rather complements, primary care. We notify a patient’s main doctors about the patient’s enrollment in the program, and reports are available about the services provided.
Supportive care:
- Fosters open communication among patients, their family and their physicians to help define care goals
- Can benefit patients at any stage of a serious illness or condition
- May be provided along with other medical treatments (as it is not the same as hospice care)
- May be provided during an inpatient hospital stay, through an outpatient palliative care clinic or through in-home palliative care services
- Lends valuable support and information to treating providers
Helps patients by:
- Identifying needs and ways to meet them—through health care, community and Peoples Health resources
- Providing ways to treat and manage symptoms, which may range from pain, insomnia, fatigue and shortness of breath to poor appetite, nausea, constipation and diarrhea
- Addressing side effects caused by treatment, as well as social, psychological and spiritual concerns related to treatment or the illness
- Supporting family and caregivers, who may feel overwhelmed by the many aspects of the patient’s care
We encourage you to discuss program benefits with your eligible patients. Please refer patients by submitting an order through the UnitedHealthcare Provider Portal, or submit a Peoples Health Medical Necessity Form to the appropriate fax number on the form. Write “supportive care” in the Service(s) Requested field. Patients can also self-refer by calling the Customer Service number on the back of their Peoples Health plan ID card.
For more information, contact your Peoples Health representative.
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