Reports from Duke University Describe Recent Advances in Managed Care (The South Had the Lowest Rates of Hospice and Palliative Medicine-certified Providers In the Us, 2024): Managed Care

2026 AUG 13 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A new study on Managed Care is now available. According to news reporting originating in Durham, North Carolina, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “To improve access to care for serious illness, policy makers need evidence on how workforce capacity aligns with the need for palliative care. This study evaluated the palliative care workforce and policy environments at the state level, using a new data source: the 2024 Center to Advance Palliative Care’s comprehensive Serious Illness Scorecard.”

Funders for this research include US Department of Veterans Affairs, Duke University, US Department of Veterans Affairs, Durham Center of Innovation to Accelerate Discover and Practice Transformation (ADAPT) at the Durham Veterans Affairs Health Care System.

The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from Duke University, “We describe variation in the palliative care workforce relative to serious illness deaths across states and by five policy types related to serious illness: serious illness task forces, continuing medical education (CME), pediatric Medicaid waivers, adult payment policies, and Medicaid expansion. States varied from 2.91 to 19.86 hospice and palliative medicine-certified providers per 1,000 serious illness deaths, and seven states in the South census region had the lowest rates. CME for serious illness care and Medicaid expansion were significantly associated with higher rates.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Between-state variation raises concerns about whether the workforce is sufficient to meet needs for people with serious illness in some southern states.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: The South Had the Lowest Rates of Hospice and Palliative Medicine-certified Providers In the Us, 2024. Health Affairs, 2026;45(7):799-807. Health Affairs can be contacted at: Project Hope, 7500 Old Georgetown Rd, Ste 600, Bethesda, MD 20814-6133, USA.

Our news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Brystana G. Kaufman, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, United States. Additional authors for this research include Rui Qu, Yurika Sakai, Jessica Ma, Dorian Ho and Cassandra Dictus.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2025.01485. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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