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What is HAN?


  • What is HAN's mission?

    Our mission is to advocate, with one voice, for policies that ensure the best care for patients and families facing the end of life.

    We fight to ensure compassionate, high-quality care for all Americans facing a life-limiting illness by:

    • Expanding an ongoing and influential presence on Capitol Hill,

    • Mobilizing a growing network of Hospice Advocates throughout the nation,

    • Empowering, through new and innovative techniques, an interactive community connecting the public with Hospice Advocacy, and

    • Cultivating relationships with the media to highlight issues impacting end-of-life care.


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  • What is the relationship between NHPCO and the Hospice Action Network?

    NHPCO and the Hospice Action Network work closely together to make an impact. NHPCO sets the public policy agenda. The Hospice Action Network implements the agenda through direct lobbying, grassroots advocacy and by working with Hospice Advocates to expand the message through education and sharing the hospice story with Congress.


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  • Why does the Alliance for Care at the End of Life need to be rebranded as the Hospice Action Network?

    In 2007, NHPCO created the Alliance for Care at the End of Life, a 501(c)4 organization. As a 501(c)3, NHPCO faces limits on the time and resources that may be used for advocacy on Capitol Hill and at the grassroots level. Up until 2007, NHPCO had been able to work effectively within those limitations. However, with new and more complicated public policy challenges, a more integrated and intensive approach was, and continues to be, needed. Under the leadership of the Alliance, the hospice community fought to successfully extend the implementation period of regulatory rate cuts from three to seven years and softened the blow of health care reform cuts by more than $2 billion.

    Building on those successes, and the more than 65,000 Hospice Advocates who are active through the Legislative Action Center, NHPCO hopes to usher in a new era of advocacy engagement.

    By repositioning the advocacy affiliate as the Hospice Action Network (HAN), the hospice community will be able to build upon the growing momentum and national interest from the general public in Hospice Advocacy engagement. HAN will enjoy all of the strengths of the Alliance and allow us to grow our advocate ranks throughout the country through innovative and interactive strategies. Quite simply, it will move Hospice Advocacy from an affiliate organization to a grassroots movement which will not only support the professional lobbying in DC, but will serve to enhance the important advocacy work that hospice providers are doing in the trenches back home.

    The Hospice Action Network provides a more aggressive and comprehensive voice that will serve the entire community and ultimately, one of America’s most vulnerable populations – those nearing the end of life.


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  • Will the Hospice Action Network represent palliative care and end of life advocacy issues?

    Absolutely. HAN’s mission extends to all of the services and issue areas impacting patients at the end of life. Palliative care and end of life services are a cornerstone of our expansive advocacy efforts.


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  • What are the current legislative goals of the Hospice Action Network?

    • Ensuring that we reach all eligible patients in need of our care, regardless of setting, for as long as they need our services

    • Protecting the integrity and structure of the Medicare hospice benefit.

    • Assuring quality is not compromised, and that our founding philosophy is an ongoing focus.

    • Protecting the focus on patient and family-centered care.

    • Exploring new – and necessary – models of care that will expand access and heighten quality to growing and changing populations.


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