Hospital and Hospice

Recent changes to President Obama's health care bill have once again eliminated the possibility of patients receiving both hospital and hospice care simultaneously, a decision that, if it remains unchanged, will hurt the lives of many. A post on The Times Record's blog explains:

Since Reagan-era changes to Medicare reimbursement, seniors haven’t been able to choose hospice unless they give up hospital visits. It was thought that it would be too expensive to offer both.

But it’s not true. A 2004 experiment by Aetna allowed patients to choose both hospital and hospice care. The results contradicted expectations.

Two-thirds of patients chose hospice, rather than the one-third now typical. And hospice participants returned to the hospital far less often, even though they could. They lived just as long as those more frequently hospitalized, and, with certain diseases, longer. Moreover, family members were far less likely to suffer from depression after the patient’s death.

Overall costs were more than 25 percent lower – a huge difference, given that nearly one-third of Medicare spending occurs in the last six months of seniors’ lives.

There have been many studies confirming the same thing, patients who are under hospice care receive far more benefits from their standard hospital care as well because with their mind at ease they are free to do what is best for their body. Add to that the lightened burden on the families of those involved and you see that hospital and hospice care need not cancel each other out, but can instead work hand in hand effectively.