For Immediate Release:
March 6, 2022

The NHPCO Leadership and Advocacy Conference is the First Hospice and Palliative Care Gathering of this Size in More than Two Years 

Conference Marks 40 Years of the Medicare Hospice Benefit

(Alexandria, Va., and National Harbor, Md.) – More than 825 hospice leaders from across the country gather this week in National Harbor, Md. for the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization’s (NHPCO’s) 2022 Leadership and Advocacy Conference, or LAC22, with nearly 100 additional participants signed up for access to online, on-demand content through the virtual conference. The annual conference is the premier gathering for hospice leaders to learn, network, reflect, and recharge, so they can help their teams continue to provide high-quality, patient- and family-centered, interdisciplinary care. LAC22, with preconference sessions March 4-5 and the main conference March 7-9, is unique in that the hospice community and palliative care community has largely foregone in-person gatherings for two years due to COVID-19.

“The hospice and palliative care community has faced incredible challenges – from a national shortage of health care workers to a global pandemic. Through it all, these professionals have stepped up to the challenge. They reinvented how they deliver care to keep their teams, patients, and communities safe, while continuing to deliver the high-quality care that every American deserves through serious illness and at the end of life,” said NHPCO President and CEO, Edo Banach. “Now, with the majority of Americans vaccinated, and with COVID indicators moving in the right direction for weeks, we are finally able to safely gather as a fully vaccinated group to learn, to be inspired, and to look to the future. I’m so pleased NHPCO is able to give back to this community at this time.”

This year marks 40 years since Congress passed the legislation that created the Medicare hospice benefit, making the conference location just a few miles from the Capitol especially appropriate for this year. As part of the official conference program, LAC22 attendees will reflect on the history of hospice, celebrate the pioneers who worked to make hospice part of our national health care landscape, and look ahead to how the community can collectively advocate to provide hospice and palliative care to more Americans, in more communities, with more equitable access. Secretary Leon Panetta, who was serving in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982 and was one of the key advocates for the hospice benefit legislation, will speak to attendees on the final day of the conference.

The conference program offers Continuing Education/Continuing Medical Education (CE/CME) for Compliance Officers, Nurses, Physicians, and Social Workers who attend in person and an on-demand library for Compliance Officers, Nurses, and Physicians, with education topics ranging from leadership, to outreach, from value-based contracting to clinical models. Keynote speakers include Emily Esfahani Smith, Journalist and Author of The Power of Meaning: Crafting a Life that Matters, Mark Shulman, World-Renowned Drummer and Author, and Mara Liasson, Political Analyst for FOX News and National Political Correspondent for NPR.

Banach added, “Hospice and palliative care are built around the idea of meeting people’s needs. This work is truly a calling. As the national organization representing these incredible care providers, I am honored that we are finally able to bring the community together again to meet their needs, so they can go back home, recharged, to support their staffs, partners, patients, and communities.”

Follow NHPCO’s 2022 Leadership and Advocacy Conference on social media: #LAC22. Learn more about the conference and register for the on-demand library of conference content at nhpco.org/lac2022.

The next NHPCO conference will be the fully virtual 2022 Interdisciplinary Conference, September 19-21, 2022. In 2023, NHPCO will implement new timing for its two main conferences. The 2023 NHPCO Interdisciplinary Conference will take place in April, as a virtual event and the 2023 Leadership Conference will take place October 16-18, 2023, in Little Rock, Ark. (preconference sessions October 14-15). Learn more at nhpco.org/conferences.

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Contact:
 Jon Radulovic
 Communications Director
 Ph: 571-412-3973