I confirm that the enclosed written work on Medicare and Hospice care , is entirely my own except where explicitly stated otherwise. I declare that wherever I used copying, paraphrasing, summarizations or other appropriate mechanism related to the use of another author’s work it has been properly acknowledged in accordance with normal scholarly conventions. I understand that wherever 6 or more consecutive words are extracted from a source they must be acknowledged and 10 consecutive words that are unacknowledged will be regarded as proof of plagiarism.
Acknowledgments Special thanks and gratitude is given to —- who helped me with his valuable guidance. My thanks will be extended also to my family including Dad, Mom and —–, my youngest brother for their kind and invaluable support during the whole project. INTRODUCTION Anna’s mother was in the last stage of brain tumor and the doctors had already shifted het to the intensive care unit 2 months back. On Thursday, the doctor called up and told that there is nothing much to do in the case. Anna had recently heard about Hospice care from her friend and suggested the same to her family.
Anna’s mother had to undergo several hours of treatment in the intensive care and she was becoming more and more miserable. At last she said, “No more hospitals, please, I want to stay at home with my family”. Initially, the family was doubtful on the custom of hospice and they thought that it was just an end to life. But for Anna’s mother it was an altogether different story. With the wonderful hospice service and care at home, she was able to spend her last days with her family which made her life much more peaceful and fruitful. The family was happy that she was no more in pain.
She died after 2 months of Hospice care. Anna and family were really thankful to the hospice provider for such a wonderful experience of the last days that were given to her mother. They came to terms that hospice treatment was far much cheaper than the intense hospital care which was of no use to them in their mother’s case. They believe that if the government could tighten up the rules with relation to Hospice and policies, patients and their relatives would definitely start considering the option of Hospice care instead of spending money on medical treatment towards the end of life.
The scenarios for the Hospice providers have changed recently. Many Hospice providers across the country are now facing an acute financial crisis. Due to the increased medical care treatment that is provided during the Hospice care, the patients are living longer than expected. This led the government to ask the Hospice providers to pay paybacks to the Medicare. This meant that the patients who might have been looked and taken acre by the Medicare, are paying the Hospice providers to face actuarial death schedules.
This situation has forced the hospice providers to shut their doors in many cases. When Hospice care was designed, it was meant for patients who had less than six months to love, and in the beginning all the patients that came for Hospice treatment were cancer victims, who died quickly once the medication efforts were stopped. But surprisingly, over the last 5 years, the patients who are willing for hospice treatment have increased by a very high amount. The patients suffering from Alzheimer and dementia form the highest majority of hospice treatment cases.
Coverage of the Hospice treatment by the Medicare started in 1983 and has now become the fastest growing industry. As for now, since almost only 1/10th of the hospice providers have to pay repayments to the Medicare, L. Armstrong, president of the hospice, states that if the limit on the Medicare reimbursements was not uplifted, then the hospice care would surely have to be shut down at a time when its demand is really going up. According to the reports, over 40% of the Medicare Patients now use the Hospice service and the amount of money being spent on it has already tripled to $9 billion in 5 years.
Medicare pays a large portion of the Hospice bills, pays the hospice providers with $140 per day for a routine one day home care. The Hospice provider is responsible for providing the home care with nurses, medical supplies and instruments as well as the mourning support to the patient’s family. Hospice care has been able to save at least $2300 per patient for the Medicare, and has been referred to as, “a rare situation whereby something that improves quality of life also appears to reduce costs. ”