A.I.M. Palliative Care

What is A.I.M. Palliative Care?

A.I.M. stands for Advanced Illness Management. It is an outpatient palliative care program providing services in patient's home. Patient must meet the following criteria for "homebound status": Need supportive device or help from someone else to leave their home because of illness or injury or has a condition that makes leaving the home medically inadvisable. There must exist a normal inability to leave home; leaving home must require considerable and taxing effort.

A.I.M. services and information:

a. Supportive care for individuals experiencing symptoms of chronic illness.

b. Who should be referred: patients with Congestive Heart Failure, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Cancer, End Stage Renal Disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Parkinson's Disease, and Alzheimer's Disease.

c. Help patients and families navigate Advanced Care Planning (i.e., MOLST or Health Care Proxy), treatment options, symptoms that impact patients' quality of life, side effects as result of treatment, and reduce frequency of ER visits and/or hospitalizations.

d. Collaboration with Primary Care Physician and/or Specialist to enhance patient quality of care.

e. Patients keep their medical team, A.I.M. is an extra layer of support.

f. Patients can be on the A.I.M. program while receiving other services in the home: homecare agencies (CHHA), physical therapy, occupational therapy, and/or VA services. This is not a duplicate of services because A.I.M. does not provide these services.

g. Patients may continue to seek aggressive treatment such as: radiation, chemotherapy, dialysis, IV hydration, hospitalization and/or wound care.

h. A.I.M Nurse Practitioner makes home visits based on frequency determined by clinical needs. However, A.I.M Palliative Care does not provide hands on nursing care.

i. Connect patients/families to resources in the community.

j. A.I.M. team available to answer questions as they arise.

Who can make a referral

Patient, family member, primary physician and/or specialist.

How to make the referral:

May submit referral form on our website (hospicecareinc.org), email referral to AIM@hospicecareinc.org, or patient, family member or primary care physician, and/or specialist can call A.I.M. team with phone referral 315-735-6487 at extension 3400.
*Preferred method for referral is from the medical provider in order to obtain medical records*.

Payment Source:

a. Medicare part B covers this service at 80%, some secondary insurances will cover the additional 20% and some do not.

b. Eligibility is verified prior to talking with patients and or family members, because some insurances do not provide coverage, or they do not follow the above Medicare guidelines.

c. All medications, DME and supplies are the responsibility of the patient; we can help facilitate orders from the primary care physician and/or specialist.

To refer:

Email to: aim@hospicecareinc.org

If you have qny questions, please call 315-735-6487 ext. 3400. You can also email A.I.M. team at aim@hospicecareinc.org.