A Hospice Step in the Right Direction

When I had the great honor of interviewing Dame Cecily Saunders, founder of the modern hospice movement, she criticized the American “way” of hospice, noting that unlike the UK, we had created a system where hospice is seen as an “abandon hope all ye who enter here,” circumstance because patients in hospice care are not permitted to also seek life-sustaining or curative care. Saunders complained that too often this means that people enter hospice too late to receive the full benefit—a problem recognized universally by hospice professionals.

Now, some insurance companies are changing that. From the story in the NYT: “But now, some hospice programs and private health insurers are taking a new approach that may persuade more patients to get hospice care for the last months of life. These programs give patients the medical comfort and social support traditionally available through hospice care, while at the same time letting them receive sophisticated medical treatments that may slow or even halt their disease.”

This is just what the doctor ordered. Now, let’s hope the bureaucrats that rule Medicare get the message.