A Black-owned hospice provider is not giving up on getting approval from the state to provide hospice home care in Mecklenburg County. Heart'n Soul Hospice of the Carolinas, whose application was denied by state health officials last week, would serve all residents but focus specifically on under-served African Americans.
In denying Heart'n Soul’s petition to provide services, the North Carolina State Health Coordinating Council said existing providers are meeting home hospice care needs in Mecklenburg County. There are currently 28 home hospice care providers in the county. No new ones have been approved in 16 years. Several existing hospice providers submitted letters to the council, opposing Heart'n Soul’s application. But Dr. Kevin Allison, a partner and chief operating officer of Heart and Soul says only a small percentage of the county’s nearly 4,700 hospice care patients are people of color.
"When we look at people of color utilizing hospice services and this encompasses all minorities, the utilization rates for Mecklenburg County as of last year for admission to hospice was 18% as opposed to where it was in the 80s for white admission to hospice services."
According to state health officials’ figures, 64% of hospice patients in Mecklenburg County are people of color. But in their rebuttal to the agency, Heart'n Soul officials said the state’s figures included white Hispanics in their calculations of people of color. State officials were not available to answer questions about that assertion.
Allison says many patients of color do not utilize hospice care because they do not know that hospice is free, paid for by insurance, that it’s in-home care and that medications, nurses, and social workers as well as medications and equipment are provided.
Heart'n Soul currently operates in Tennessee and Washington state. Allison says several local medical and church leaders and some elected officials see the need for an operation that focuses on people of color and are offering support. He says they will continue to appeal to North Carolina state health officials to approve their application. The governor signs off on the state’s annual medical facilities plan as the final step in the process.
