• E-mail
• Print
• RSS

Some hospice patients receive a new lease on life

Case Management Weekly, July 12, 2006

Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Case Management Weekly!

Roughly 100,000 patients who check into hospices each year expecting to die within six months, do not do so, and instead are moved to a skilled nursing facility (SNF), or are transferred home and live with evident satisfaction, according to a report in the San Jose Mercury News. The statistic, based on a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is expected to increase as baby boomers age.

Medicaid and Medicare cover hospice care when a patient's doctor and a hospice doctor agree that a patient will die within six months. According to the National Center for Health Statistics:

• About 1.2 million, or two-thirds or all hospice patients die within 30 days.
• Patients who survive more than six months, but are not expected to live for another six months, are kept in hospice.
• Patients whose conditions have improved and are stable after six months are normally discharged.

Though the reasons for increased hospice discharges are unclear, some experts point to inaccurate physician prognoses, a change in the hospice population (less cancer patients, more patients with dementia or heart, lung, and kidney failure), and improved patient care before entering a hospice facility.

Source: San Jose Mercury News

Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Case Management Weekly!

• E-mail to a Colleague
• Print
• RSS
• Archive