Eligibility Criteria |
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Adults as well as children are eligible for services from Kansas City Hospice & Palliative Care.
Patients with any terminal diagnosis are eligible for hospice, including but not limited to patients who have:
- Cancer.
- Neurological disease.
- Lung disease.
- Liver disease.
- Stroke.
- Renal disease.
- Cardiovascular disease.
- Dementia.
- Alzheimer’s disease.
- Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
- Congenital defects.
The general eligibility criteria for hospice care are:
- The patient has a prognosis of weeks or months rather than years if the disease runs its normal course.
- The patient and family’s philosophy of care is to focus on comfort, rather than curative treatments.
Additional eligibility criteria for Medicare coverage of hospice are:
- The patient has a prognosis of six months or less and the patient’s physician and the hospice physician confirm that prognosis.
- The patient has Medicare Part A.
- The patient elects hospice care in lieu of other Medicare benefits.
- Hospice care can continue beyond six months if the patient continues to meet eligibility criteria.
Commercial insurance may have different eligibility criteria.
At the initial visit, we will evaluate the patient’s clinical status, symptoms, laboratory results, Karnofsky score and other factors to assure that the patient is eligible.
If your patient is not eligible for or does not feel comfortable with hospice, Palliative Home Health Care may be helpful.
The Palliative Home Health Care team provides care similar to hospice, but there are no prognosis requirements or expectations regarding curative treatment. Palliative Home Health Care patients may be receiving aggressive treatment, have a very positive prognosis, waiting for a transplant, have an uncertain prognosis or generally wish to continue every effort to reverse the course of illness.
Palliative Home Health Care patients also may be eligible for hospice but prefer the flexibility of palliative care. Services are covered through the home health benefit in insurance policies, and a Medicare election is not required as is needed with hospice.
As a nonprofit organization, Kansas City Hospice & Palliative Care is committed to serving all in need, regardless of their financial resources. Kansas City Hospice & Palliative Care does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, handicap/disability or religious beliefs.
Please call 816-276-2700 if you have any questions, if you are unsure whether a patient would be eligible for one of Kansas City Hospice & Palliative Care’s programs, to make a referral or to schedule an assessment of your patient.
Read more about the range of programs and services we offer. |
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