Important: For patients looking at Hospice Options

Hospice will only take over the responsibility of palliative cancer care (pain management, nausea management, and perhaps palliative emergency surgery, etc.). They do not treat, manage or prescribe for any preexisting non-life threatening conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, blood thinners, etc. as examples. For Medicare to continue to cover the costs of your Primary Care Doctor office visits, such as obtaining refill prescriptions, etc. two things must happen: (1) Advise your primary care doctor when you enter Hospice program. (2) Remind the primary care doctor to properly code or footnote any claims they submit to Medicare for services rendered to you as “Preexisting conditions” and not related to Hospice Care Illness. You may need to repeat this reminder each time you visit your primary care doctor.

My Primary Care doctor knew I had enrolled in Hospice but forgot to properly code or footnote claims made and Medicare refused to pay the claim stating: “Patient was enrolled in Hospice at the time of this visit. Claim denied by Medicare. Balance is patient’s responsibility.”

Save yourself some worry and headache by making sure everyone is informed of your situation.

--R.D.