The Physician’s Responsibility under the New Medicare Reimbursement for Hospice Care

Two physicians express concern over reimbursement restrictions in new legislation providing Medicare coverage for hospice care. Under proposals, the maximum reimbursement period for such care is 210 days, physicians must certify that their patients have 6 months or less to live the latter become eligible for hospice services. Inaccurate prognoses have serious implications for patient well-being, physician liability, and financial stability of hospice programs. Since length of survival is very to predict, the authors propose a way by which physicians can avoid invalid prognostications while drawing attention to the inadequacies of reimbursement system. (KIE abstract)