Former President Jimmy Carter died recently at the age of 100 after being on Hospice care for nearly two years.
How can that be? According to Medicare guidelines, to qualify for hospice under Medicare a patient must have a prognosis of six months or less to live if the disease runs its normal course. What if a patient lives longer then six months… won’t they lose hospice care?
Not necessarily.
Hospice patients and families can receive care for six months OR LONGER. In August 2023, President Carter reached the six-month milestone on hospice and continued to enjoy time with his family and loved ones in his hometown of Plains, Georgia.
Some patients outlive their prognosis, and in those cases the patient can be recertified for continued hospice care. You can get hospice care for two 90-day benefit periods, followed by an unlimited number of 60-day benefit periods.
Studies have shown that hospice patients tend to live longer than patients with similar diagnoses who do not choose hospice care. Research also shows that hospice care—at any length of stay—benefits patients, family members, and caregivers, including increased satisfaction and quality of life, improved pain control, reduced physical and emotional distress, and reduced prolonged grief and other emotional distress.
Hospice care focuses on quality of life when a cure is no longer possible, or the burdens of treatment outweigh the benefits. Some people think that their doctor’s suggestion to consider hospice means that death is very near. That is not always the case. In fact, people often don’t begin hospice care soon enough to take full advantage of the help it offers.
Talk with your doctor if you think a hospice program might be helpful for you or a loved one.
One last thing to keep in mind, it is possible to leave hospice care if a patient’s condition improves or they decide they wish to resume curative care and return to hospice care later.