Home Health & Hospice Week

Payment for palliative care should be incorporated into Medicare's skilled nursing facility benefit, suggests a new study in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

"Almost one-third of older adults receive care in a SNF in the last 6 months of life under the Medicare" benefit, notes the abstract published in the October issue of the journal. And one out of 11 beneficiaries die while enrolled in SNF care.

"Often our focus on these patients is trying to keep them functional or independent for as long as we can. What we may be overlooking is that they are on an end-of-life trajectory," said Dr. Katherine Aragon, the study's lead author from Lawrence General Hospital in Massachusetts, according to press reports.

The abstract is at http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1368358.