The History of Hospice
The History of Hospice
Hospice care was added as a benefit under the Medicare program in 1983, and two years later it was added as a benefit under Medicaid. Since that time, the number of beneficiaries electing hospice care and the number of agencies offering such services has grown steadily. In 1998, 420,824 Medicare beneficiaries received more than $2 billion in hospice care services from more than 2,000 hospice agencies across the country, with an average length of stay of 48 days.
Hospice care is covered under the Medicare Hospital Insurance program and is available to all beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare Part A. To be eligible, the patient’s physician and the hospice medical director must certify that they are terminally ill, with approximately six months or less to live if their illness runs its normal course.
The beneficiaries also must sign a statement indicating that they understand they are choosing hospice care instead of routine, curative Medicare-covered benefits for their terminal illness. The prognosis must then be reaffirmed by the physician at 90 days, 180 days, and every 60 days thereafter.
Beneficiaries can receive hospice services wherever they reside, whether at home, a nursing home, a hospital or other facility or setting where the patients reside. Once in hospice, they also continue to have Medicare coverage for treatment of other problems not related to their terminal illness from either their own physician, the hospice physician, or their Medicare+Choice plan if they are enrolled in one.
Services that hospice agencies routinely provide include:
¤ Physician services (on-call 24 hours a day, seven days a week)
¤ Nursing care (on-call 24 hours a day, seven days a week)
¤ Physical, speech, and occupational therapy
¤ Medical social worker services
¤ Medical supplies (such as bandages and catheters)
¤ Drugs for symptom control and pain relief
¤ Medical equipment (such as wheelchairs or walkers)
¤ Short-term care in the hospital, including both respite care and procedures necessary for pain control and symptom management
¤ Home health aide and homemaker services
¤ Continuous home care of eight hours or more per day during a period of crisis as needed so that the patient can remain in the home
¤ Dietary counseling
¤ Counseling to help the hospice patient and the family deal with grief and loss
¤ Any other item or service for which payment may otherwise be paid under Medicare
Subscribe Now for Access
You have reached your article limit for the month. We hope you found our articles both enjoyable and insightful. For information on new subscriptions, product trials, alternative billing arrangements or group and site discounts please call 800-688-2421. We look forward to having you as a long-term member of the Relias Media community.