http://www.aahpm.org/apps/blog/?p=717 Physicians caring for patients with serious illness. Thu, 07 Feb 2013 01:31:00 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 http://www.aahpm.org/apps/blog/?p=717&cpage=1#comment-213 Gail Austin Cooney Thu, 29 Apr 2010 14:19:57 +0000 http://www.awebsource.com/clients/aahpm/blog/?p=717#comment-213 We are one people! I am excited to hear palliative care leaders like Sean Morrison and Diane Meier supporting the continuum of palliative care that includes hospice. The Medicare Hospice Benefit, with all of its limitations and frailties, is still the most inclusive payment program for palliative care – and without a revenue stream, it’s tough to provide the excellent, coordinated care needed by patients with serious illness and those who care for them. As we work to ensure that our patients receive the care they need, it’s important for us to speak with one strong & confident voice. We are one people! I am excited to hear palliative care leaders like Sean Morrison and Diane Meier supporting the continuum of palliative care that includes hospice. The Medicare Hospice Benefit, with all of its limitations and frailties, is still the most inclusive payment program for palliative care – and without a revenue stream, it’s tough to provide the excellent, coordinated care needed by patients with serious illness and those who care for them. As we work to ensure that our patients receive the care they need, it’s important for us to speak with one strong & confident voice.

]]> http://www.aahpm.org/apps/blog/?p=717&cpage=1#comment-191 Diane Meier Sat, 24 Apr 2010 17:42:09 +0000 http://www.awebsource.com/clients/aahpm/blog/?p=717#comment-191 I want to add my voice to that of AAHPM's to say that there is no palliative care without hospice and there is no hospice without palliative care. Palliative care is about matching treatment to patient goals and needs whether they have a curable disease (like leukemia or lymphoma for example), or a chronic disease (like Alzheimer's or dialysis dependent end stage renal disease) or are living in the last few months of life. Hospice is the best thing that Medciare does and I am hopeful that one day it will be available to all, based not on someone's estimate of their prognosis, but on need for home-centered, patient and family-centered, well-coordinated care. There is every reason to be optimistic about this as the new health reform law calls for pilots of the simultaneous hospice+life prolonging care model, not to mention coordinated care models like accountable care organizations and medical homes- neither of which have a prayer of success without palliative care and hospice expertise. So yes- hospice is a critical component of the continuum of palliative care. I want to add my voice to that of AAHPM’s to say that there is no palliative care without hospice and there is no hospice without palliative care. Palliative care is about matching treatment to patient goals and needs whether they have a curable disease (like leukemia or lymphoma for example), or a chronic disease (like Alzheimer’s or dialysis dependent end stage renal disease) or are living in the last few months of life. Hospice is the best thing that Medciare does and I am hopeful that one day it will be available to all, based not on someone’s estimate of their prognosis, but on need for home-centered, patient and family-centered, well-coordinated care. There is every reason to be optimistic about this as the new health reform law calls for pilots of the simultaneous hospice+life prolonging care model, not to mention coordinated care models like accountable care organizations and medical homes- neither of which have a prayer of success without palliative care and hospice expertise. So yes- hospice is a critical component of the continuum of palliative care.

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