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For Susan, it meant feeling supported by a strong hospice team that helped her take care of her husband at home during his last days. As Medicare’s first coordinated care model, we must protect the Medicare Hospice Benefit for caregivers like Susan. When Susan’s husband, Walter could no longer do simple tasks like pay bills, carry on a normal conversation, prepare simple foods, or drive without getting lost, it became clear that he was developing Alzheimer’s disease. Even though there were times of great difficulty keeping Walt home to care for him, there were also many great times as well that he would never have experienced if he had been in a nursing home.

Skip to content Abt Associates, Inc. and Joan Teno, MD (OHSU) under contract with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) are developing a hospice assessment instrument for use in the CMS Hospice Quality Reporting Program (HQRP). In support of this work the Abt team and Dr. Teno will be joining some key hospice-related conferences this year to conduct a series of Listening Sessions for providers and industry to share their thoughts on what’s most important to consider when developing an assessment instrument to be used in the CMS’ Hospice Quality Reporting Program. The Goal of the Listening Sessions is not only to hear what is important to consider when developing an assessment instrument, but also to listen to concerns from the field of providers, experts, and industry. The first of these Listening Sessions will be held on Tuesday April 16th and Wednesday April 17th at 745 AM at the NHPCO Leadership & Advocacy Conference in Washington, DC.

For Diane, it meant feeling empowered to implement her mother end-of-life wishes. As Medicare’s first coordinated care model, we must protect the Medicare Hospice Benefit for caregivers like Diane. While Diane’s mother had made clear that she wanted to die naturally, but after months of ER visits and stress that exhausted Diane and her mother, it was apparent that something needed to change. If I had known then what I know now about hospice being a care plan for any stage in the dying process, I would have put Mom in hospice care much earlier.

As Medicare’s first coordinated care model, we must protect the Medicare Hospice Benefit for advocates like Paula. In September of 2015, Paula’s younger sister Jessica was admitted to hospice. At the time, Paula knew little about hospice except it serves those in the last stages of life, but the next few months inspired Paula and brought comfort to her sister. We invite you to keep promoting the power of hospice by joining the My Hospice campaign.