Your Choice in Home Health and Hospice Care

As I meet people in the community in my role as President/CEO for Ramona Visiting Nurse Association and Hospice, it is interesting to learn how few people understand the Medicare Hospice Benefit, and how even fewer understand that they have a “Choice” in selecting their hospice provider.

An analysis completed by United Government Services, LLC, the Medicare Regional Home Health and Hospice Intermediary for California and 8 other western states, demonstrated that this misunderstanding is not peculiar to our community.

A common misperception is that your physician must select the provider of your hospice care. It is important to remember that patients have a CHOICE in the selection of their hospice provider. While there are a number of hospice providers in our community, not all Hospice Providers are alike. The relationship between RVNA & Hospice and Hemet Hospice Volunteers, Inc. (HHVI) is one of the things that set RVNA & Hospice apart from other hospice providers.

This special relationship affords us the ability to provide special needs, education and necessities our patients might not otherwise receive during their hospice care. Some of the ways HHVI assists our patients include: payment for basic necessities (groceries, utility bills, special care products); payment for special needs items (caregiver at home, airline tickets to fulfill a last wish, Christmas gifts for children who have a parent receiving hospice care); free bereavement group services to families in the community; and hosting our annual Happy Hearts Kids Camp for children in the community who have suffered a personal loss.

Another common misperception is that hospice care is only for those persons with a terminal cancer condition. Although hospice care is commonly requested by physicians for their patients with cancer diagnoses, there are many other conditions also appropriate for hospice, and for which Ramona VNA & Hospice provides care.

National data shows that 50.5% of hospice diagnoses are cancer. The top five non-cancer diagnoses that frequently receive hospice care are: end-stage heart disease, dementia, lung disease, end-stage kidney disease and end-stage liver disease. The common thread with each of these diagnoses is that the physicians feel that the patients are unlikely to survive more that 6 months if their disease runs its natural course.

However the 6 month figure is not absolute. Medicare recognizes that predicting life expectancy is very difficult. Many patients enter the program, leave the program and return to the program over the course of their illness. Many people enter hospice in the last few days or weeks of life, rather than earlier in the progression of their disease. As noted in a National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) study, “There is an inaccurate perception throughout America that receiving hospice care means you have “given up”. Rather, patients or families who choose hospice care live an average of one month longer than similar patients who do not choose hospice care.

Remember, you have a CHOICE when it comes to hospice care. If you or a loved one needs hospice care, please tell your physician you would like Ramona Visiting Nurse Association and Hospice to be your hospice provider. As the premier hospice and home health providers in the valley for the past 25 years, we are proud to continue to provide this important service to our community.