Humana expands palliative care
Tuesday Health signed a partnership to expand value‑based palliative care with Humana, with the program launching June 1, 2026. The deal sets a clear rollout date and opens integration conversations for payer and care‑coordination vendors. (prnewswire.com)
Humana and Tuesday Health said Tuesday they will launch a palliative care program in Texas on June 1, 2026. (prnewswire.com) The program will cover eligible Humana members living with serious illness and their caregivers, with coordinated clinical guidance, symptom management, and ongoing support delivered in the community. Tuesday Health said the arrangement is built as value-based care, a payment model that ties reimbursement to outcomes and total cost of care rather than volume of visits. (tuesdayhealth.com) Palliative care is specialized medical support for people with serious illness, focused on easing symptoms and stress while treatment continues. Humana says its in-home palliative care services are meant to support medical, social, and emotional needs and can be provided alongside curative care. (humana.com) Humana has already built palliative care into other insurance arrangements. In guidance for the federal Hospice Value-Based Insurance Design model, the insurer says palliative care fills gaps for members who are not ready for hospice or need more support than standard care management provides. (assets.humana.com) The timing tracks a larger push by insurers to manage serious illness earlier and outside the hospital. The Center to Advance Palliative Care said in its 2024 scorecard that at least 13 million adults and about 700,000 children in the United States live with a serious illness. (capc.org) Tuesday Health has been adding payer deals this year. On January 20, 2026, it and Buckeye Health Plan said they had launched a similar palliative care program in Ohio on January 1, 2026, offering in-person and virtual services. (tuesdayhealth.com) The company pitches those contracts around fewer avoidable hospitalizations, better hospice transitions, and higher member and caregiver satisfaction. Tuesday Health says it works with health plans across lines of business and sends nurses, social workers, nurse practitioners, and physicians into members’ homes, by video, and by phone. (tuesdayhealth.com) Humana has also been moving more members into value-based arrangements. In its latest annual report, the company said about 2.36 million members were covered under shared-risk value-based arrangements at the end of 2024, including about 2.11 million individual Medicare Advantage members. (stocklight.com) For vendors that handle referrals, utilization management, and care coordination, the June 1 start date gives a concrete point for payer-provider integration work in Texas. For patients, the near-term change is simpler: a Humana-branded palliative care option that starts before hospice and is designed to follow treatment goals set at home. (prnewswire.com)
