Hospice question. Did anyone experience this and if so did you cancel the secondary insurance?

You say that you believe she is NOT actively dying. If that is the case I am afraid to have you cancel supplemental insurance. You could take a terrible hit in costs if her Hospice care "goes away" and there is certainly that chance as you describe things. You say it has been a great insurance; therefore you understand that this supplemental has paid out a lot. It is a real gamble if you cancel it. I wouldn't, but only you know how long there will be funds for it. Ultimately, if you DO cancel and use this money for in home care there will BE no funds to pay medical bills; so at that point it doesn't matter if she dies with medical debt or not; there will be no funds in her estate to pay them and she will be "deceased; no estate". The bills will fade away.
Do the best you can with this decision after you weigh everything.

yeah, one week she improves and the next week not so good- she's bedridden now but with certain sitters we can get her in wheel chair. I just wanted to see what others did- yes Blue Cross 65 covered the 20 percent Medicare didnt cover and she has had the plan a long time....

My husband was under hospice care in our home for the last 22 months of his life. He was on my health insurance along with his Medicare. About a year into his hospice care I removed him from my health insurance, and he went strictly on his Medicare(since hospice is covered 100% under it). It was at that point that I learned that even though Medicare covers hospice care 100%, hospice was still billing my insurance as well, and they were paying for a large part of it, along with my husbands Medicare. I guess they were able to recoup more money by doing it that way as Medicare has caps on certain charges. Seems like a racket to me, but then again any insurance is.

I guess the part that always got me, was that in the beginning hospice was charging over $6000 a month, and my husband was in our home with me doing 99% of his care. Towards the end I noticed the amount actually was over $15,000 a month, still with me doing 99% of his care. Now if that's not a racket I don't know what is. Sorry I digress.

My husband was not "actively dying" until his last 6 weeks under hospice care, so just because your grandmother isn't to that stage yet, doesn't mean that she won't continue to qualify for hospice care. Wishing you wisdom and discernment in this situation.

I'm not a pro at things insurance, but slightly more than $200 a month seems like a good bet in case there are other costs associated with the hospice care that are NOT covered by Medicare. I would hedge my bets and keep paying the $200.

I am in the same situation and it never dawned on me that I could cancel some of dad's supplemental insurance because hospice was paying for everything. I know he is getting 1 med paid for that hospice won't cover. But I'm sure that the cost of his insurance is more than that med. So, you have given me something to think about.... good luck with your decision... it's a tough one.

DO NOT cancel your g'ma's insurance unless you are absolutely positive she will never need hospitalization. And how can you be so sure? Other than having AD, my wife was in pretty good health. I figured she would live out her life in MC and not require any reason to be hospitalized. She was on hospice care almost the entire time she was in MC. Over a couple of days, however, she became unmanageable and was combative and destructive. The director of nursing suggested she be sent to a psych ward to address her behavior. The family agreed and she left the facility to be admitted for psychological evaluation and treatment. When she left the facility, the hospice nurse did not immediately sign her out of hospice. In fact, she wasn't signed out of hospice until after she was admitted to the hospital. My insurance claim for her hospital stay was denied by the ins co because they still had her under hospice care. Private insurance and hospice care are not concurrent services. Working with hospice and the ins co, we resolved the problem and the insurance did cover her 12 day stay. As soon as she returned to the facility, she was signed back into hospice care. I was so relieved that I didn't cancel my wife's private ins.

So I would suggest keeping her insurance. $200/ mo is a drop in the bucket compared to what you would pay for a stay in the hospital.

We have had two different family members on hospice and then get better and taken off hospice.

Think carefully and speak to doctors and social workers prior to making this move.

Don’t cancel her insurance at this point in time. My mom had Humana. I don’t know anything about the others.

So, hospice is covering her meds. The sitters are the major cost for you, right? Why don’t you call Council on Aging for help with sitters? It is not a lot of hours, but it’s free. There is a wait list so I wouldn’t wait to call to schedule a needs assessment evaluation.

Best of luck to to you and your grandmother.

I’d keep it but for reasons other than have been posted. We’re expecting a beast of a hurricane season. If we have several close together there’s going to be breakdowns of services (like workers choose to take days off to deal with their family) or we going to have to evacuate. Your above 10 but still can be affected. So this way should something go amiss, she has health insurance to use to pay for clinic or hospital care if need be. $200 a mo is pretty minimal cost for this piece of mind.

I’d keep it till October as it will be past the worst (although Zeta caused loads of damage in Oct). Also by then you’ll have a better idea as to if she’s getting better so no hospice needed.
Do try to find out what type of transportation will be provided in da parish if there’s an evacuation & what shelters will take limited ambulatory elderly & what they can bring in with them. And see what you might can do to have packed & ready 30+ Days of all medications and any personal items she uses each day. Really if you live in this area you should IMO have a “ditch bag” ready by Father’s Day & Plan your work, work your plan.