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How Hospice Care Takes Care of Your Loved One During This Phase of Life
If you’ve decided that hospice is the best next step for your loved one’s care, you may be looking into their Medicare benefits to determine what kinds of services your loved one is entitled to.
Understanding your loved one’s health insurance benefits can be challenging. The following guide will help you understand what hospice benefits include, as well as how to find an excellent hospice care provider.
Understanding Your Loved One’s Hospice Benefits Through Medicare
After your loved one’s doctor has determined that treatments have ceased to bring about healing results for their condition and your loved one’s life expectancy is estimated at six months without additional treatments, you may decide to seek hospice care.
Depending on your loved one’s particular Medicare benefits, you have a choice for your hospice care provider. For example, if your loved one has elected a Medicare Advantage Plan for additional coverage benefits, you select hospice care from a list of approved hospice providers.
In general, however, hospice care benefits include:
- A focus on comfort. Your loved one will no longer receive treatment for their terminal illness, so comfort and pain-management are key.
- Care in your loved one’s home environment, as opposed to a medical facility.
- A dedicated medical team that manages your loved one’s hospice care, including doctors, nurses, social workers, and other specialized caregivers.
- A hospice nurse and doctor, who are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week to ensure your loved one has help when they need it.
- Specialized care for your loved one’s entire well-being, including physical, emotional, and spiritual care.
- Medication, equipment, and medical supplies related to caring for your loved one’s terminal illness.
- Help for family caregivers.
What Is Not Covered by Medicare Hospice Care Benefits
Not everything your loved one may need covered through your hospice care benefits. The following needs not covered by Medicare:
- Treatments for the terminal illness not covered, if you decide to resume treatment.
- Prescription drugs that not related to the terminal illness (although these covered by certain Medicare plans).
- Any care that is not part of your hospice care provider’s plan of care.
- Hospital care (emergency room care, inpatient hospital care, and more) unless it arranged by your hospice team.
Keep in mind, however, that Medicare may cover these items outside your specific hospice care benefits. For a comprehensive understanding of your Medicare benefits during hospice care, contacting Medicare is always a wise choice.
How to Find the Right Provider for Hospice Care
One of the biggest challenges for family members who are trying to secure hospice care for a loved one is finding a provider that will ensure high-quality care. While hospice care benefits may be the same for many people, selecting a provider requires some research.
One of the most important areas to look into when researching a home hospice care provider is how they address the physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being of your loved one. This is where a provider has an opportunity to shine – and this is an opportunity for you to advocate for the best care you can find.
Excellent hospice care should include:
- Spiritual support from chaplains skilled in comforting hospice care patients.
- Bereavement counseling and resources for the family.
- Medical social workers there for emotional support and willing to pitch in to help in a variety of ways that not specifically covered by core hospice team members.
- Volunteers who make themselves available for additional support.
- Access to specialized care when needed, including physical therapists, dietary counselors, and more.
Advocate for Your Loved One by Finding the Best Home Hospice Care
A holistic approach to your loved one’s comfort is essential at this point in their life’s journey. Seeking out the right care for them may require you to interview more than one hospice care provider to get the very best care. Remember that you’re the advocate for your loved one. Also, you deserve to find care that you feel comfortable with and that you believe will benefit your loved one the most.
See if the characteristics listed above are available from a provider you’re interested in learning more about. Look at testimonials from families and see if their comments reflect positively on the provider. If it’s clear that they put compassion and care for their patients first and offer a full suite of services that can truly touch all of your loved one’s needs, you’re likely on the right path.
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