[Multibilly]

Column about hospice (from USA Today)

by Multibilly on Fri Nov 14, 2014 8:20 pm

I found this to be an interesting article on the thorny choice of hospice in the USA:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/11/13/assisted-suicide-compromise-hospice-hope-treatment-column/18994071/

Here are the first couple of paragraphs:

Terminally ill brain cancer patient Brittany Maynard's death by prescribed lethal overdose – legal in Oregon – made headlines. Her campaign to legalize assisted suicide – or as some prefer, "aid in dying" – sparked increased debate of the best ways to care for the terminally ill.

Most of the attention has focused on hastening death, a volatile topic about which people of goodwill – including this article's authors – have differing views ...

Rather than shout at each other, both sides of the assisted suicide divide should get enthusiastically behind this health care change: Allow the terminally ill to enter hospice care without having to give up life-extending or curative treatments."

[cindylouise]

Re: Column about hospice (from USA Today)

by cindylouise on Sun Nov 16, 2014 8:36 am

Very interesting article. I did not realize the difference between hospice here and other countries. While it does not apply in cases of cancer care, hospice in other situations does not require the stopping of all treatment. For example, we don't necessarily stop blood pressure medications, etc., in elderly patients considering hospice. Depending on the patient's condition, they often stop those medications because they are life prolonging, which is not always what either patients or families want upon entering hospice.

Also, there is quite a range in what people are hoping for when they enter hospice. In the elderly, we are often looking at a decline in general condition when considering hospice. And in some cases, just the change in their general treatment can end up being life prolonging, and we see them come off of hospice care.

I think in the case of cancer in general we do need a change to these Medicare rules. Especially as use of novel therapies like Velcade and Revlimid become more common. But not surprisingly, the U. S. lags behind other countries in their approach to insurance issues.