Maybe I’m misinterpreting the article but this seems like a correction to me. Isn’t this to prevent the patient from having to pay a copay out of their pocket for drugs that should be covered under their Medicare hospice benefit?
I’ve worked with many hospice patients and in my opinion they were very free with the pain killers. In fact, I’ve observed what I considered to be euthanasia with morphine several times.
yep...... I concur from direct observation
Do you prefer that patients scream in pain? We are talking about people who have a few months to live.
"Medicare generally pays drugs for diabetes, heart disease or other chronic conditions still used by hospice patients but not directly related to their terminal illness"
I found:
"Instead of leaving it to insurers and hospice providers to identify the drugs they are responsible for, the new rule sets up a process that requires Part D plans to reject initially any prescription from a hospice patient. The patient or doctor, with the hospice provider’s agreement, must explain to the insurer why the drug is not related to end-of-life care. The insurer may deny coverage for a number of reasons, including if the doctor or hospice did not explain sufficiently why the drug was unrelated to the terminal illness, Medicare officials told hospice organizations and insurers"
Medicare Seeks To Stop Overpayments For Hospice Patients' Drugs
May 1, 2014