Marquis’ Chronic Illness Initiative Creates ‘Mini Hospital Environment’ to Address LTC Gaps

Marquis Health Services in early 2022 plans to launch a chronic illness initiative focused on nephrology, pulmonology, cardiology, pastoral, palliative and infectious disease services, in an effort to address what the operator considers gaps in post-acute and long-term care.

Brick, N.J.-based Marquis is currently evaluating and qualifying facilities to participate in the initiative, according to Jennifer Hertzog, vice president of marketing and business development for Marquis.

“In any market we operate a skilled nursing facility in, our first step in the market is meeting with our hospital partners to understand unmet need,” said Hertzog. “The hospital relationships for us are a big driver in terms of where we start, in terms of specialization.”

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Hertzog points to its Woodbine Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center facility as a good example of what the initiative will look like at the ground level — the Alexandria, Va. center’s chronic kidney disease (CKD) management program helps CKD residents at the 307-bed facility manage their condition with the help of Dr. V. Bala Subramanian, a nephrologist affiliated with area hospital Inova Health Systems.

“In our setting, we have created a life scenario where patients that are living with chronic disease have the ability to be managed by specialists, the ability to participate with disease-specific education provided at the center,” added Hertzog.

Specialists are chosen based on what acute care settings are seeing in the community.

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“If [the hospital] suggests there’s significant gaps in the renal continuum, that will be a priority area for us. So we kind of take their cue, if you will, and we partner with them on these initiatives,” noted Hertzog, adding that about 75% of Marquis’ specialty programming efforts are supported by area hospital alliance specialists.

Taking that ‘cue’ from Inova, Marquis plans to open an in-house hemodialysis unit at Woodbine to further complement the area’s need for renal care and service delivery, Hertzog said.

“This provides the comprehensive support that I think the industry was missing, to be honest, and I think that there are many very forward-thinking organizations like Marquis that have brought specialists in-house, creating our own mini hospital environment, if you will,” explained Hertzog. “Where we were missing the mark was supporting the comprehensive picture of chronic disease.”

About 65% of Marquis’ 41 skilled nursing facilities qualify for the initiative already, with multi-specialty talent existing in-house — participating SNFs must have a cardiologist, pulmonologist, and nephrologist on staff, as well as palliative medical support via physician, physician assistant or nurse practitioner and a minimum of pastoral presence three days per week.

Coupled with Marquis’ initiative, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced Oct. 29 its own plans to take action in closing health equity gaps among those living with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and CKD.

CMS is introducing the ESRD Quality Incentive Program (QIP) and changing Treatment Choices (ETC) model, and increasing ESRD prospective payment system (PPS) rates.

Rule changes encourage dialysis service providers to decrease disparity rates among dialysis recipients and kidney transplant candidates; it’s one of the CMS Innovation Center’s first models to directly address health equity, CMS said in a statement.

“Enabling dialysis providers to offer more dialysis treatment options for Medicare patients will catalyze better health outcomes, greater autonomy and better quality of life for all patients with kidney disease,” CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure said in the statement.

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