healthcare_professionals

For Health Care Professionals

Only one in three people eligible for hospice care receives it. Why aren’t more people taking advantage of this benefit? Many times it is because they don’t understand what hospice can do to offer peace and comfort, or they may have misconceptions about how they would qualify for this care. Often, they look to you as their health care provider to guide them in this process.

Determining a patient’s eligibility for hospice can be challenging. You want your patients to receive the best services they need at the end-of-life, but it can be hard to know when the timing is right. Hospice of Marshall County would like to partner with you to provide this care and we can help you determine this eligibility based on Medicare regulations.

According to Medicare guidelines, patients are eligible for hospice care if in the physician’s best medical judgment they have a life expectancy of six months or less. These determinations are to be used as guidelines ONLY and do not take the place of a physician’s clinical judgment. Coverage for hospice care may still be appropriate for patients not meeting these determinations due to comorbidity or rapid decline.

Listed here is information on disease processes and other eligibility tools that will help you gain a better understanding of eligibility in general, or to help you determine eligibility with a particular patient in mind.

• Adult Failure to Thrive
• Cancer
• HIV Disease/AIDS
• Stroke and Coma
• ALS
• Cardiopulmonary Disease
• Alzheimer’s Disease
• Renal Disease
• FAST (Functional Assessment Staging) Scale
• New York Heart Association Functional Classification
• Karnofsky Performance Status Scale

Please Contact Us if you would like to refer a patient or for additional questions about hospice services or hospice eligibility.

Health Care Professionals Documents

Adult Failure to Thrive LCD for Initial Certification

ALS Functional Rating Scale

ALS LCD for Initial Certificate

Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders LCD
for Initial Certification

Cancer LCD for Initial Certification

Cardiopulmonary LCD for Initial Certification

Functonal Assessment Staging (FAST)

General LCD for Initial Certification

HIV LCD for Initial Certification

Karnofsky Performance Status Scale