HOSPICE CARE & SUPPORT

If you have Medicare Part A and meet these conditions, your hospice care is fully covered:

• Your hospice doctor and your regular doctor (if you have one) certify that you are terminally ill (life expectancy of 6 months or less)
• You accept palliative care (for comfort) instead of care to cure your illness.
• You sign a statement choosing hospice care instead of other Medicare-covered benefits to treat your terminal illness and related conditions.

Depending on your illness and related conditions, the plan of care your hospice team creates can include any or all of these services all offered by Robinson Creek: doctor and nursing care, medical equipment and supplies, prescription drugs, hospice aide and homemaker services, therapy services (physical, occupational, speech), social work services, dietary counseling, grief and loss counseling for you and your family, short-term inpatient care (for pain and symptom management), and short-term respite care. Short-term respite care means that you will become an inpatient at a Medicare-approved facility (like a hospital, nursing home, or other hospice care facility) if your usual caregiver (i.e., family member) needs a rest. As your hospice provider, Robinson Creek will arrange this for you. You can stay up to 5 days each time you get respite care.

Hospice care is for people with a life expectancy of 6 months or less. However, if you live longer than 6 months, you can still get hospice care, as long as the hospice medical director or other hospice doctor re-certifies you (or your loved one). In addition, a hospice nurse and doctor are on-call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to give you and your family support and care when you need it. There is always someone here for you during this difficult time.