LightBridge Medical Associates, Health Net Awarded California HealthCare Foundation Grant
Funding allocated to implement community-based palliative care in a managed care environment
San Diego-November 2015 - LightBridge Medical Associates, in partnership, with Health Net is pleased to announce that they have been awarded a two-year grant from the California HealthCare Foundation to implement a community-based palliative care program. This grant follows an initial planning grant awarded in 2014.
The program grant, “Health Insurers and Palliative Care Providers: New Models of Care,” is one of seven grants awarded in California.
The grant program is bringing palliative care to Health Net’s most medically complex and frail members in San Diego County to add an extra layer of care management and support. The focus of palliative care is to improve the quality of life for a patient and their family through the relief from the symptoms, pain and stress of a serious illness, regardless of diagnosis. It is appropriate at any stage of an illness and can be provided along with curative treatment. Research shows that people often live longer when they receive palliative care along with other treatments.
“While medical advances have provided great benefit to some, many people with serious illnesses can still experience physical and emotional distress as well as lack of alignment between their personal values and the medical care they receive,” says Kate O’Malley, Senior Program Officer with the California Healthcare Foundation. “Multiple studies have shown that specialized palliative care services address these needs in a way that usual care alone does not. With a focus on defining and adhering to patients’ goals of care, managing pain and symptoms, addressing psychosocial and spiritual issues, and coordinating care among multiple providers and settings, palliative care improves the quality of life and experience of care for people with advanced illness.”
About Lightbridge
LightBridge Medical Associates (LBMA) has been providing palliative care to patients since 2009. LBMA was the first palliative care specialty medical group in San Diego and one of the first in the nation. Their affiliated company, LightBridge Hospice, is Joint Commission accredited and has been providing hospice services throughout San Diego County for well over a decade.
For more information please call LightBridge Medical Associates at (858) 458-2993 or visit our website at www.LightBridgeMedical.com.
About Health Net
Health Net, Inc. (NYSE:HNT) is a publicly traded managed care organization that delivers managed health care services through health plans and government-sponsored managed care plans. Its mission is to help people be healthy, secure and comfortable. Health Net provides and administers health benefits to approximately 6.1 million individuals across the country through group, individual, Medicare (including the Medicare prescription drug benefit commonly referred to as “Part D”), Medicaid and dual eligible programs, as well as programs with the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Health Net also offers behavioral health, substance abuse and employee assistance programs, and managed health care products related to prescription drugs.
For more information on Health Net, Inc., please visit Health Net’s website at www.healthnet.com.
