Health Tech Nerds Radio Why so few patients access palliative care, and how Empassion is addressing that | Robin Heffernan (Empassion)
Apr 22, 2026
Robin Heffernan, CEO of Empassion Health, leads a nationwide supportive care network for palliative and hospice services. She explains the difference between palliative and hospice care. She outlines Empassion’s payer-contract model that makes care free to patients and a tech-enabled in-home network across 45 states. She also discusses measuring hospice quality and why fraud and oversight gaps persist.
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Clear Difference Between Palliative Care And Hospice
- Palliative care supports physical, emotional, and spiritual symptoms at any stage of illness.
- Hospice begins when a clinician expects less than six months to live and intensifies that supportive care for end-of-life comfort.
Palliative Care Is Vastly Underused In The Last Year Of Life
- Most seriously ill patients in their last year of life don't get palliative care, so they endure unmanaged symptoms and avoidable hospitalizations.
- Robin says only ~5% of eligible patients receive palliative care, leading to ER visits, aggressive interventions, and poor discharge outcomes.
Make Supportive Care Free And Easy Through Payer Contracts
- Contract with payers so supportive care is free to patients and combine claims algorithms with warm referrals to identify seriously ill patients.
- Connect patients to vetted local in-home providers and coordinate care to manage progression into hospice when appropriate.