Medicare Monitor
The Palm Beach Post's veteran Washington correspondent, Larry Lipman, tracks policy makers and interest groups who are shaping the future of the federal health insurance program for the elderly.Medicare Web Resources
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Medicare is the federal health care system that covers about 36 million people age 65 and older, plus 7 million disabled. It has four parts:
Financed by a 2.9 percent payroll tax divided equally between employees and employers.
Financed by beneficiary premiums and federal general revenue. Current monthly premiums are $93.50. Starting this year, individuals whose taxable income is more than $80,000 will pay a higher premium.
Financed by Medicare and beneficiary premiums, which vary among plans.
The plans are private and financed by Medicare and beneficiary premiums, which vary among plans.
-- Larry Lipman
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Home > Medicare Monitor > Archives > 2008 > June > 04 > Entry
New rights for hospice patients
For the first time in a quarter-century, Medicare hospice patients would get new rights about their end-of-life care under a proposed rule scheduled to be published Thursday.
Under the rule, which would take effect Dec. 2, Medicare hospice patients would have greater rights to effective pain management, the right to refuse treatment, and the right to choose their own physicians. Patients also would be entitled to participate in their treatment plan.
Although many hospices allow patients to participate in their treatment decisions, this is the first time Medicare has explicitly outlined those rights as part of its regulations.
Nearly one million Medicare beneficiaries receive hospice or palliative — pain management — at more than 3,000 Medicare-approved hospices nationwide.
“As more patients and their families come to understand and select hospice care, we felt it was critical to outline what rights patients have to control the care they receive in their final days,” Kerry Weems, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said in a statement.
“End-of-life care has changed markedly in the past 25 years and it is time to update our regulations to reflect advances in medicine and hospice industry practices as well as patient rights,” Weems said.
Unlike traditional health care aimed a curing patient, hospice care is chosen by some patients with terminal illnesses who wish for forgo further curative treatment in favor of pain management and services aimed at comforting the patient and family.
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