Veterans can seek curative treatment while on Hospice
- Afterlife by Design
- May 30, 2022
- 1 min read
It's called Concurrent Care and as of right now only Veterans can receive curative treatment while receiving hospice care.
Unlike the Medicare hospice benefit, the VA does not require patients to end curative treatment in order to enroll in hospice. VA health benefits cover both concurrently.
Home-based primary care combined with hospice has led to greater family satisfaction among dying veterans covered by the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) in recent years. These results signal potential opportunities for hospice providers looking to engage patients further upstream as they increasingly diversify services in a value-based world.
The VA’s home-based primary care (HBPC) program provides coordinated, interdisciplinary care to seriously ill and disabled veterans who wish to age in place at home. Receipt of hospice services while enrolled in the HBPC program was associated with higher satisfaction of end-of-life care, according to recent VA research published in the Journal of American Geriatrics Society.
A little more than half, or 52.6%, of nearly 4,000 veteran families surveyed reported that their loved ones received “excellent” quality of community-based hospice care within the last 30 days of life while enrolled in HBPC.
The integration of community-based hospice care among veterans represents an opportunity to improve the overall experience of end-of-life care. For more information contact your local VA or hospice agency.