Why Are Heart Failure Patients More Likely to Discharge from Hospice Alive?
Medicare pays 100% for hospice if patients have a life expectancy of six months or less and they are not…
Is My Doctor Giving Up on Me? Reactions to A Hospice Recommendation.
Hospice is a Medicare-covered service of symptom control for patients nearing the end of life and of emotional support for…
Twelve Questions Anyone Should Ask When Diagnosed with Serious Illness
For most of us, there will come a time in our lives when we are sitting in an exam room…
Is It Appropriate for Doctors to Use the Surprise Question on Terminally Ill Patients?
The “surprise question” is a technique doctors sometimes use to help with care planning for terminally ill patients. Its appropriateness…
Can Doctors Accurately Predict How Long Someone Has to Live?
When patients have a terminal disease, candid but compassionate conversations about life expectancy prove vitally important. These conversations help patients…
How to Tell Your Doctor if You Do or Don’t Want to Know Your Life Expectancy
If you were diagnosed with a terminal disease, would you want the doctor to tell you how long you are…
The Difference Between Hospice and Home Health
At first glance, Medicare’s hospice and home health programs are very similar. Some families even use home health as a…
What is a Full-Code Hospice Patient?
A full-code hospice patient is a hospice patient who chooses to be resuscitated if he or she stops breathing or…
How to Help Someone Who is Grieving
Reaching out to someone who is grieving can be scary. What if I say or do the wrong thing? What…
Hospice Myths that Hurt Patients and Families
In the last months of life, the hospice program offers important benefits. These include improved emotional status for the family,…
