Hospice care is a service for people with a serious illness that have chosen to receive or continue curative treatment for their illness. Hospice aims to provide comfort and peace to help improve the quality of life. Hospice does not hasten or accelerate the end-of-life process. Hospice focusses on quality not quantity of life.
Palliative Care is a specialized care service that providing a variety of support with the goal of promoting a better quality of life for patients that wish to continue curative treatment. A specialized team of doctors, nurses and other professionals to help provide an extra layer of support.
Anyone with a serious illness who doctors think has a short time to live, generally it’s 6 months or less. For Medicare to pay for Hospice Care, a patient must stop curative treatment for the hospice diagnoses listed.
Generally, Medicare part A pays hospice agencies. Medicare Part A also covers inpatient hospital stays’ care in skilled nursing facilities as well.
Most Medicaid and private insurance providers will cover some of the services provided by hospice. Older adults who are enrolled in Medicare can receive the hospice benefit when the healthcare provider believes the patient to have less that 6 months to live with normal disease progression.
Despite all the benefits of hospice, some people wait to receive hospice care until their final weeks or days. It is recommended to talk with your doctor about your illness and the disease progression. Starting hospice early may be able to provide months of meaningful care and quality time with loved ones.
Hospice care can provide a range of different services depending on one’s symptoms and end-of-life care wishes. Services include but not limited to emotional and spiritual support, relief of symptoms of pain and advanced care planning.
Hospice care can be provided in many settings, such as a private home, nursing home or assisted living. Choosing where to receive hospice care is a personal decision, but it may be helpful to visit with family members, caregivers and a doctor to provide a level-of-care need.
When hospice care begins, medications and other treatments designed to cure your serious illness with stop. For example: If you are receiving chemotherapy that is meant to treat or cure your cancer, that must end before you can enter hospice.
While many believe hospice provides 24 hour a custodial care, this is rarely the case. Although hospice provides allot of support, most of the day-to-day care of the hospice patient comes from family of friends. Our hospice care team is available, by phone 24 hours a day.
Studies have shown that when a person enrolls in hospice care they a more likely to have increased family satisfaction and better symptom control and pain management.