Inpatient Hospice Care

HealthNow Hospice care is the leading choice of comfort care for people with life expectancy of less than six months and for those who have accepted that their illness can no longer be cured. Since this approach to care dwells more on the comfort of the patient, it is often provided in a place where the patient feels at home the most. However, sometimes some patients experience short-term symptoms that are so severe and requires an advance level of care which cannot be adequately given or treated at home and can only be provided during a short stay in an inpatient hospice facility. These are symptoms that require continuous care and attention which can only be given in a specific setting where nurses are available anytime to administer treatments and medications as well as emotional support to make the patient more comfortable.

HealthNow Hospice works with different types of facilities that can offer inpatient hospice services. A few examples are a free-standing facility owned and operated by a Hospice company, an inpatient hospice unit within a hospital and a hospice unit in a skilled nursing facility or a nursing home. The main purpose of inpatient hospice care is to control and manage severe pain and symptoms so that the patient can return home and resume hospice care at home with the patients loved ones, family and friends.

A common terminal illnesses of individuals who receive inpatient care have the following diseases or health issues including cancer, circulatory disease, respiratory disease, ill-defined conditions, and mental disorders. These terminal illnesses are also the most common in the general hospice population. The rate is paid to the hospice for each day that a beneficiary is in hospice care, regardless of the number of services furnished. The rates are adjusted based on the beneficiary’s geographic location.

According to Medicare there are four levels of care that should be provided to a patient undergoing hospice care. The four levels are routine home care, general inpatient care, continuous home care and respite care. Inpatient care is the second most expensive level of hospice care. Routine home care is the most common. The good news about HealthNow Hospice is that we accept Medicare and Medicare reimburses HealthNow so the patient is under the care of the hospice as much as needed. Continuous Hospice Care is allowed only during brief periods of crisis in which a beneficiary requires continuous care to achieve palliation or management of acute medical symptoms.

Depending on the intensity of services needed and the situation of the patient, all Medicare-certified hospices are required to provide the four levels. Other patient has to undergo all four while some stay on one for the rest of their hospice care program. Each situation is unique to each and every patient the important thing is the level of comfort received during the entire hospice care program.