Vital Decisions to Support Health New England With Comprehensive Advance Care Planning Services

Health New England will leverage advance care planning services for its 180,000 members through Vital Decisions to help individuals with serious illness plan for future health care decisions

Washington, DC (November 3, 2021) – Vital Decisions to provide comprehensive advance care planning (ACP) services to Health New England, a not-for-profit provider-owned health plan based in Massachusetts that serves 180,000 members. Vital Decisions will support Health New England’s Medicaid, Medicare and Commercial members. The partnership will ensure that Health New England members have support to empower them to articulate and advocate for the care they want in the face of serious illness.

Through a series of in-depth phone or video conversations, Health New England members will have the opportunity to closely examine and document what is most important to them when considering their quality of life and healthcare goals. This program, called Living Well, ensures that care preferences and goals of care are clearly communicated to families and medical teams and are reflected in individuals’ care plans.

“At Vital Decisions we are focused on meeting every individual where they are no matter what stage of the advance care planning process they are in,” said Vital Decisions’ CEO Leah Puccio. “We are humbled to provide advance care planning services that will allow Health New England members with an advanced illness the opportunity to think through and document their quality of life goals, so individuals and their caregivers have peace of mind and confidence in the care decisions that need to be made now and in the future.”

“When individuals have an advanced illness, these conversations on care decision-making often become very nuanced and delicate due to the range of emotions one may be feeling,” said Health New England Director of Population Health Clinical Programs Maggie Perracchio. “Our goal is to provide services that are person-centered. No two people are alike, and the Living Well program allows for an individualized approach to these difficult conversations which we feel is absolutely critical as we want each person to receive care that aligns with who they are as a person.”

About Health New England

Based in Springfield, Massachusetts, Health New England is a not-for-profit health plan serving members in Massachusetts and Connecticut. A wholly-owned subsidiary of Baystate Health, Health New England offers a range of health care plans in the Commercial, Medicaid and Medicare markets. For more information, visit healthnewengland.org.