EPOCH Senior Living - Understanding Hospice Services

Understanding Hospice

Hospice is a philosophy of care that leads to an enhanced life for a terminally ill person. Hospice care is not about dying, it’s about living – living as comfortably and as fully as possible from the first days of a life-limiting illness to the last. At EPOCH Hospice Care, we provide care to our patients and families that reflect an expression of care, comfort, compassion and love. We consider our patients and their families one in the same. We address physical, emotional and spiritual needs… making no attempt to hasten or postpone the natural process of dying.

There are common misconceptions about what hospice care entails. Below, the National Hospice Association of America dispels the most common myths about hospice care…

Hospice Care – Fact or Fiction:

Fiction: Hospice is a place where the terminally ill go to die.
Fact: Hospice is not a place, but a concept of care. More than 90% of the hospice services provided in this country are based wherever a patient currently resides . . . in a hospital, skilled nursing center, an assisted living community or the home.

Fiction: Hospice only serves persons diagnosed with cancer.
Fact: Although many hospice patients do have terminal conditions related to cancer, there are other frequent admissions: heart disease, infections and parasitic diseases, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, meningitis, etc.

Fiction: Hospice services are expensive because 24-hour, on-call services are provided.
Fact: Generally hospice costs less than hospital care, nursing homes or other institutional settings, because a hospice patient pays only for the services rendered. Medicare covers most hospice services.

Fiction: To be eligible for hospice care, a patient must already be bedridden.
Fact: Hospice care is appropriate at the time of the terminal prognosis, regardless of the patient’s physical condition.

Fiction: After six months, patients are no longer eligible to receive hospice care through Medicare and other insurances.
Fact: If a patient lives beyond six months, the attending physician must recertify that the patient is terminal. Medicare, Medicaid and many other insurances will continue to cover hospice services.

Fiction: Once a patient elects hospice, he or she can no longer receive care from the primary care physician.
Fact: Hospice reinforces the patient-primary physician relationship by advocating either office or home visits, according to the physician preference. Hospice works closely with the primary physician and considers the continuation of the patient-physician relationship to be of the highest priority.

Fiction: Once a patient elects hospice care, he or she cannot return to traditional medical treatment.
Fact: Patients always have the right to reinstate traditional care at any time, for any reason. If a patient is discharged from hospice and wants to return, Medicare, Medicaid and most insurers will allow readmission.

Fiction: Hospice means giving up hope.
Fact: Hospice helps patients reclaim the spirit of life. It helps them understand that even though death can lead to sadness, anger and pain, it can also lead to opportunities for reminiscence, laughter, reunion and hope – hope that hospice will enable a patient to live life to its fullest.

Methods of Payment

Medicare, Medicaid, most private insurance companies and HMOs offer a hospice benefit, usually with no costs to the patient.

Patient Rights

Patients of EPOCH Hospice Care will:

Have the right to a holistic assessment that will enable social, emotional, religious and cultural values, beliefs and needs to be accepted and respected.
Be cared for by appropriately trained members of our multidisciplinary team.
Be guaranteed dignity, privacy and confidentiality.
Remain informed at all times of their condition.
Receive clear, understandable information so they are able to make informed choices.
Have family members welcomed to participate in care.
Receive the highest quality of care possible.

NOTICE OF HOSPICE PRIVACY PRACTICES