Thanks, this is all good stuff. What a public service to assemble this in one place. As I'm sure you remember it's incredibly disorienting to walk into this reality without warning.
There's another hospice wrinkle I want to mention, which is that while you're in hospice status, there are certain types of life-extending treatments that Medicare won't pay for. For example, going on hospice is not compatible with chemotherapy or radiation treatment for cancer, as I understand it. In general, they want you to call hospice and not 911. But stuff does come up. A couple of times during his final months, my dad was rushed to the hospital to prevent immediate death -- one example was when his oxygen tube became disconnected and he didn't have the strength to fix it before it turned into a respiratory crisis that required really high volumes of O2 for a week. This was considered an OK reason to call 911, but the hospital had to take him off hospice status for the time he was there. I only understand this dimly from the caregiver side and I'm sure you have a reader who understands the legal/administrative details here better than I do, but I thought it worth a mention.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2023-11-08 12:53 pm (UTC)There's another hospice wrinkle I want to mention, which is that while you're in hospice status, there are certain types of life-extending treatments that Medicare won't pay for. For example, going on hospice is not compatible with chemotherapy or radiation treatment for cancer, as I understand it. In general, they want you to call hospice and not 911. But stuff does come up. A couple of times during his final months, my dad was rushed to the hospital to prevent immediate death -- one example was when his oxygen tube became disconnected and he didn't have the strength to fix it before it turned into a respiratory crisis that required really high volumes of O2 for a week. This was considered an OK reason to call 911, but the hospital had to take him off hospice status for the time he was there. I only understand this dimly from the caregiver side and I'm sure you have a reader who understands the legal/administrative details here better than I do, but I thought it worth a mention.