"The
effect is very negative for end-of-life care in the country. The way hospice is
designed now may have worked fine 30 years ago, but it doesn’t work now and we
need to think about alternatives."
U.S. health care has been in
flux since 2010, with many aspects of health care reform still on hold. Hospice
is one area that is still waiting for help with protecting the elderly and
those in end-of-life care.
As reported quite recently
through the Kaiser Health News,
hospice care has yet to be expanded under the Medicare project set out three
years ago.
The article titled “Medicare Lags In Project to Expand Hospice”
examines the very real conflict between “curative” treatment and “palliative”
treatment. The former is meant to cure a condition and thereby prolong life,
and the latter is meant to ease the pain caused by a condition without a focus
on effecting a cure.
Naturally, the curative and
palliative treatments are often considered opposites. In fact, choosing
palliative care would mean giving up all hope on curative care. Consequently,
it is only natural that rapidly declining patients delay their entry into
palliative hospice care.
The 2010 law was to begin
inroads into exploring combined care, the possibility of both curative and
palliative concurrently. Logically, this should ease transitions without
forsaking hopes, likely reducing costs in the process. To date, however, this
has not happened.
Health care planning is
complicated, and since so much is at stake be sure to consult a professional
when exploring your options.
For more information and articles on
estate planning and elder law topics, please visit our website
and sign up for our free monthly e-newsletter. You can also friend
our law practice's Facebook page (R Christine Brown). #ElderCare #Hospice
Reference: Kaiser Health
News (May 9, 2013) “Medicare Lags In Project to Expand Hospice”