More than one type of hospice care?
This is with regard to my wife who is now fully quadriplegic due to MS.
I thought hospice was solely an end of life service. Now I’m told that Medicare will provide, free of charge, a hospice as opposed to palliative, that will maintain a person whose condition will not improve while they are still not with an end of life diagnosis, but with chronic hospital issues.
Apparently, hospice will come to our assistive care home and provide skilled nursing services, including a mobile physician, an RN as a team leader, an LVN to administer injections, change catheters and report any notable circumstances to the RN who confers with the MD. Also PT, a Podiatrist to cut toenails, a person to bath the patient etc. They will also supply a fully electric bed and low air loss mattress.
Is there a good reason to be wary of Medicare providing something too good to be true?
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Certainly if a Medicare patient is bedbound, most Medicare advantage plans will provide in home services to assess her health. And some measure of in home Nursing visits.
What you are describing as Hospice service sounds to me mostly like good Home Health care through medicare, available if her doctor orders it.
What HOSPICE will provide is comfort care and an alternate response in an "emergency" situation, i.e., an alternate to calling 911 and having her transported to the hospital.
last time I read through the basics of hospice...to be eligibile the patient must have a prognosis of less than 6 months of life. Not to say that some live much longer...but this begins with the doc providing that diagnosis
thanks for the response. I looked into the Palliative care issue but the care offered was for a shorter amount of time with less assistance offered. The 4 companies I interviewed for Palliative all said the same thing. That my wife needed the hospice. They said her condition would most likely qualify her to be recertifications for years.
As I noted. Doesn’t sound Medicare like.