So thankful for good friends who try to encourage, and prompt discussions about needed changes to our Medicare hospice benefits from end-of-life patients. This article was posted on November 17 by the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization.
More Research Validates the Benefits of Hospice; What Will It Take to Change End-of-Life Care in America?
This research is promising for cancer patients, however, dementia continues to be a constant challenge with CMS, and hospice follows suit. I wonder how long until lawsuits come up for CMS' discrimination against dementia patients? We are unbelievably constantly at risk of being kicked off because he is dementia even in his current state of being extremely underweight and not improving...but simply being momentarily stable. Also...medications that have been covered for a year, that assist with symptoms directly related to his decline, are suddenly being excluded, meaning we will have to pay for them outside Hospice, on Gary's Medicare Part D drug coverage. Unbelievable.
The other piece that plagues us under the Hospice umbrella is that NO meds have been specifically proven to help for Lewy Body Dementia, so all are at risk of being experimented with for gradual dose reduction at any time, even in his fragile state. There is no hospice exception for these reductions. So unfair. If you can prove they have benefit in your case and you are on hospice, there should be exceptions for hospice patients...instead, reductions must be tried simply because nothing that happened prior to admission in your current facility counts. This is so unjust!
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