Programs can offer important revenue for hospitals running at or near capacity. This is done by creating incremental hospital revenue from increased bed capacity as a result of reduced LOS. Also the palliative care program’s ability to transfer patients out of heavily resourced units like the ICU, while maintaining high quality patient care, also offers greater revenue opportunities. Revenue enhancement comes from increased capacity in these units with relatively higher costs and reimbursements.

An important component of making the financial case is explicitly stating that palliative care can contribute to revenue through these effects on hospital capacity.

The example below shows an analysis demonstrating revenue enhancement from decreased LOS and resulting increased capacity.