Please let us know what you’ve learned. As others have said, Medicare will pay for a PT evaluation and possibly some limited services to teach safe transfers to family. Does your husband sit up comfortably in the hospital bed, ie with the head raised?
In some cases Hospice can also order PT if the PT will prevent pain, muscle contractures. I bet if the PT can or would help maintain the ability to aid in transfer so as to reduce the probability of injury to the person and or caregiver it might be covered. It is worth asking your Hospice Nurse.
Yes, absolutely. Hospice is covered by Medicare but it is in no way home health care. You get only a bedbath a few times a week, a weekly visit from an RN, medications, access to Social Worker and clergy. You do not get in home care.
Yes, it is possible to be a hospice member and still employ a home care provider to provide PT care using long-term care. Hospice focuses on providing comfort and quality care to patients with terminal conditions, while a home care professional can provide ongoing care and medical attention to a patient in need of long-term care and rehabilitation. Both services can complement each other to provide the patient with the optimal level of care and support based on their needs.
Thank you. I am new to this forum and should have provided more background before asking the question. I have been my husband's fulltime caregiver since 2015 when he suffered a massive right brain stroke that left him with hemiparesis. We were managing in that we had made a life for ourselves until June 2023 when he suffered another stroke that impacted his right side. We went through ER, Hospital, SNF Rehab again and then he was discharged home to me. Now he is bedbound. We started using Hospice services in our home on 09/27/2023 and I have never been so grateful for the help. They feel like family. As to the PT, it is difficult for me to see him confined to the bed and not be able to help him transfer. He has no core strength. So, I want to use our LTC (Genworth) to hire a Home Health Care company to perform a PT assessment. I plan to review with our case manager this Friday and will be meeting with a Home Health Care company on Monday.
When a patient is on hospice the family is required to provide or hire 24 hour home care. Hospice only comes in 1-3x/week for an hour or less. If the patient is on Medicare, they may not cover PT, as hospice implies that all therapeutic interventions have stopped.
If the PT is a comfort measure it will be allowed. That is if you are doing gentle range of motion exercises to prevent painful contracturing of muscles, or to enable ability to sit up or some such. What won't fly for long term care (if you are speaking insurance) is any curative care they would normally provide where a hospice patient is concerned.
As you can imagine, we don't know your LTC insurance, don't know the patient, don't know your reasons for wishing for PT, and etc. So this is best discussed with your current MD, Hospice and LTC. We are just a Forum of strangers who wish you the very best in comfort care that you can get.
Hope you will update us what you find out as you explore your issue.
As you can imagine, we don't know your LTC insurance, don't know the patient, don't know your reasons for wishing for PT, and etc. So this is best discussed with your current MD, Hospice and LTC. We are just a Forum of strangers who wish you the very best in comfort care that you can get.
Hope you will update us what you find out as you explore your issue.