New Hospice Rules Become Final

Written By: Attorney Jeffrey A. Marshall, CELA*

In the first major overhaul of regulations governing the hospice industry since 1983, CMS has updated its Medicare Conditions of Participation to include explicit language on patient rights that had not existed under the previous regulations. Specifically, the rule says, patients who choose hospice or palliative care over curative treatment are entitled to such things as:

            -Participation in their treatment plan

            -The right to effective pain management

            -The right to refuse treatment and

            -The right to choose his or her own physician

In addition to the new patient rights' section, the final regulation, which will take effect in December 2008, updates a number of other hospice provider rules. 

In 2006 there were approximately 4500 hospices nationwide.  About 1.3 million people received hospice services in 2006, more than twice as many as did a decade earlier. Medicare spent about $10 billion on hospice care in 2007, up from about $3 billion in 2000.

The new rule was published in the Federal Register on June 5, 2008 and is available online at http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/08-1305.pdf

Attorney Marshall can be contacted at webmail@paelderlaw.com or at 1-800-401-4552

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