Home Health & Hospice Week

PPACA isn't all bad news for hospice providers. Many terminally ill patients refuse to elect Medicare's hospice benefit because they would have to give up curative treatment, but the new health care reform law could change their perspective. Children will benefit immediately from the new health law, as it instructs Medicaid to cover simultaneous hospice and curative care for children with terminal illnesses. At the same time, another provision -- the Medicare Hospice Concurrent Care Demonstration Program -- directs the Health and Human Services Secretary to establish a three-year demonstration program that would allow patients who are eligible for hospice care to also receive all other Medicare covered services while receiving hospice care. "The demonstration would be conducted in up to 15 hospice programs in both rural and urban areas and would undergo an independent evaluation of its impact on patient care, quality of life and spending in the Medicare program," according [...]