Home Health & Hospice Week

You may soon get better coverage for pediatric palliative hospice care, thanks to the Affordable Care Act. A provision in the Act would expand access to pediatric hospice and palliative services, according to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization.

A new report, Pediatric Concurrent Care Briefing, released by the NHPCO’s Mary J. Labyak Institute for Innovation, not only highlights the need for better access to pediatric hospice care, but also delves into why the ACA will greatly improve such access. "Under the ACA, all state Medicaid programs are required to pay for both curative and hospice services for children under age 21 who qualify," the NHPCO states.

Specifically, this requirement shows up in the ACA’s "Concurrent Care for Children" requirement in Section 2302.

"It’s important to remember that the care provided to a child with serious illness is different from the care that we would give to an adult," NHPCO present and CEO J. Donald Schumacher said in a recent statement. "While the numbers of children [who die] each year from a serious illness in the U.S. are low, we have a responsibility to compassionately care for each of these children and their families."

You can view the entire report at www.nhpco.org/sites/default/files/public/ChiPPS/Continuum_Briefing.pdf.