Referral processes can have a huge impact — positive or negative — on the proportion of eligible patients who eventually receive services. Referral processes cover two core areas: engaging with referring providers, and referral workflows.

This section of the SB 1004 Resource Center reviews strategies for engaging patients, strategies for engaging providers who might refer eligible patients, and options for optimizing referral workflows.

An overview slide deck (PDF) covers core concepts about this topic, and features responses to a 2019 survey that CHCF administered to MCPs and PC providers regarding their experiences in their first year of SB 1004 implementation.

MCPs and palliative care providers can use the summary of SB 1004 Promising Practices: Engaging Patients (PDF) and SB 1004 Promising Practices: Referral Processes (PDF) to identify ways they may add to or modify their current approaches. Both documents summarize challenges and promising practices identified by MCPs and palliative care providers who have been delivering SB 1004 palliative care.