Medicare May Soon Cover "Concurrent Care"

It's well documented that sometimes families will choose to continue curative treatments for a terminally ill loved one, even if a cure is unlikely, rather than choose palliative care that focuses on symptom management and comfort care. No one wants to feel like they are "giving up" on a loved one. They understandably want to try everything medically possible to try and cure or slow down the advance of disease.

Complicating the issue is that many insurance programs and Medicare stipulate that patients must choose to forego further curative treatments before they can be admitted into a hospice program and receive its comfort-based measures. Unfortunately, the decision to seek hospice care is too often made just days or hours before the death of the ill family member. He or she has not been able to benefit from the many wonderful, supportive services the hospice team provides.

The good news is that soon patients and families may no longer have to make such a heart-breaking choice.

The U.S. Health & Human Services Dept., which administers Medicare, is undertaking a"concurrent care" study to see how to combine (and cover) curative treatments with palliative care. Can this perplexing issue be heading toward a solution? We certainly hope so because this is the right thing to do.

http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2010/05/24/prsb0524.htm