Hospice Care Options

As more people learn about the benefits of receiving hospice care, questions remain about the timing. Additionally, there are questions about how and where too.

General Overview

Hospice is palliative care, meaning a “team” approach to provide support to the patient and family. Another key point is to walk along side and help patients navigate the end-of-life process – both physically and emotionally. Therefore, it is available for anyone with a serious/terminal illness whose physician believes has a limited time to live — usually six months or less. For Medicare to cover the services and equipment, any life-sustaining treatment will stop.

Where is care provided? Hospice can come to you, wherever your home may be.

Independent Living – this can mean your home or an apartment in a senior community.

The hospice team will provide:

• Personalized Care Plan -customized to meet the patient’s medical, physical, spiritual needs along with support for loved ones.
• Routine Visits – expect visits from registered nurses and hospice aides to assist with care as well as visits from therapists, chaplains or volunteers, as requested by family.
• Education – Family caregivers* may receive training and instructions on how to provide care and medications safely and effectively.

* This is an important distinction between receiving care in assisted living, memory care or a hospice house. In between home health visits, family members, friends or hired outside aides will have to manage medications and needed cares.

Assisted Living – this is your assisted living or memory care apartment or skilled nursing home.

The main, and most important, difference with receiving hospice services in a care setting, such as those mentioned above, is who is providing health care 24/7. The on-site healthcare team and the hospice team collaborate closely on all the care needs of the individual. Generally, hospice RNs, aides, practitioners, therapists and volunteers continue to make regular visits. For the most, part the care needed between those visits is provided by the on-site staff, not family.

–Setup: Whether in your independent home or in a care setting, the hospice team will order necessary equipment, supplies, and medications. Specifically, all of this is brought to you and paid by Medicare.

Medicare and Hospice – What is and is not Covered

Once your hospice benefit starts, Original Medicare will cover everything you need related to your terminal illness and related conditions, but the care you get must be from a Medicare-approved hospice provider. (medicare.gov)

It will not cover:

• Treatment intended to cure your terminal illness and/or related conditions.
• Prescription drugs that aren’t for your terminal illness or related conditions.
• Care from any provider that wasn’t set up by the hospice medical team. You must get hospice care from the hospice provider you chose.
• Room and board.
• Care you get as a hospital outpatient (like in an emergency room), care you get as a hospital inpatient, or ambulance transportation unrelated to your terminal illness and related conditions, unless your hospice team arranges it.

For full explanation Medicare Hospice Benefits  

https://www.medicare.gov/publications/02154-medicare-hospice-benefits.pdf

The Twin Cities has some outstanding options from which to choose. Once you feel you or your loved one may be ready for hospice, do your research. Ask friends or trusted professionals or Choice Connections for some recommendations. Furthermore, when you are ready, schedule a consultation with at least two providers. These consultations will help you learn more about the available services, qualifications and benefits of hospice  from each provider.  Providers do differ in some ways with what they provide.