The Medicare Hospice Benefit
Medicare Hospice Benefit
The Medicare hospice benefit is designed to add quality of life, support and extra benefits for patients and their families at end of life.
Hospice-eligible patients with Medicare can access the hospice benefit at end of life. The Medicare hospice benefit covers all costs for care for the patient’s terminal illness and related conditions.
The emphasis of hospice care is on effective symptom management. The goal is to make the hospice patient as physically and emotionally comfortable as possible and to enable the patient to remain wherever they call home to ensure there are minimal disruptions to normal activities.
Hospice considers both the patient and the family as the unit of care, so counseling and respite services are available to the family of the home hospice patient as part of the benefit.
- Physician services and nursing care
- Social worker services
- Certified nurse aide and homemaker services
- Chaplain and spiritual counseling
- Medical equipment such as wheelchairs, medical beds and oxygen
- Medical supplies
- Medications associated with admitting diagnosis and related conditions
- Education and resources to support:
- Function (ambulation, transfer, dressing, bathing feeding, toileting)
- Nutrition (eating, drinking, hydration, nourishment)
- 13-month bereavement support for the patient’s loved ones
Your loved one’s physician can make a referral to Elara Caring or you can contact us directly.
Our clinical team, which includes a hospice physician, will assess your loved one wherever they call home to determine eligibility. Once eligibility is established, we provide the support and resources they need to focus on living as fully as possible by spending time and energy on the activities they enjoy with the people that matter.
The patient always has the right to stop hospice services for any reason at any time. The patient also can resume the hospice benefit as long as they meet eligibility. The Elara Caring care team can help facilitate this process.
Contact your local Elara Caring branch for more information on hospice services.
Why Choose Hospice Sooner?
Research indicates that hospice care improves symptom distress, care quality, caregiver outcomes, patient and family satisfaction. Hospice care data is associated with improved quality of life and longer survival rates.
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