Hi Guys,

I'm new to all this, so bear with me while I ramble out my situation:

Father has had long term cancer, but was living well on his own. A rapid onset of pain two months ago led to a spill, and he was admitted to the hospital two times over the past two months.

After the first admission, he was sent home with various in-home PT,OT and what not. He has excellent supplemental insurance, but no LTC insurance.

His pain returned, and again was intractable, so he was admitted again, this time for almost two weeks.

During the last bout in the hospital, all three of his physicians (general, oncologist, urologist) recommended transitioning to hospice care. During this time, he was receiving pallative radiation to one "hot spot", and this continued when he transitioned into hospice care (he was in-patient for about a week).

After he was released, we attempted to place him in a hospice facility, but this didn't go over well with him, so we wound up bringing him home. We had 24/7 "critical care" from hospice, but his health improved markedly.

Hospice discontinued 24/7 care after about 5 days, and now we're down to 2 visits a week from the hospice RN. Fortunately, we have some resources, and were able to hire CNAs to provide respite care over the night hours, but this is $$$, and leads to a different part of this story altogether....

Anyway, as I said, my fathers health and demenor have improved considerably (maybe shockingly?), and now he is having second thoughts about hospice care, and and is thinking about going back to agressive therapy and rehab.

If we back out of hospice care, how does that affect his part A medicare? Does it revert to it's pre-hospice coverage? Or is it one way, and once you commit you are locked in? I know that part B is not affected by his status, but I want to make sure we're not heading into some insurance quagmire before I commit to this course.

Thanks for any information....

Best,
FRC

quote:

If we back out of hospice care, how does that affect his part A medicare?

Welcome in FRC
I would think so but my question is this what does his Doctors say about his overall health?
Are they willing to proceed with aggressive therapy and what do they feel the outcome will be?
If I were in your shoes Id have a sit down with all his Doctors and discuss what his options are and how it will effect his quality of life then if its what you want request that Hospice be withdrawn from your fathers care plan.

Hi Bunnys,

Thanks for the response.

Actually, his overall heath is much better than when he was in the hospital. Personally, while elated that he is doing better, I think this may just be a "bounce" from getting off of the chemo drugs and the pallative effect of the radiation.

But my father is also in possesion of his faculties, and can be very pushy. I'm trying to get a meeting with his primary care doctor for next week.

But if hospice withdrawl nukes his part A medicare benefits, there could be serious financial risk if we do this, and it needs to be taken into consideration if there is going to be limited long-term benefit.

Thanks for the insight.

BEst,
FlRC

quote:

I think this may just be a "bounce" from getting off of the chemo drugs and the pallative effect of the radiation.

Thank you sweetie this is exactly what I was thinking too I just didnt want to come right out and say that to you Im glad your looking at this realistically thats exactly whats needed in a situation such as this.
Do talk to the PCP first and get the answers you need.
I dont want to answer the MC part A issue since it may be different for your dad considering his health issues but Im sure if you call them they will be able to answer this concern.
contact them @ 1-800-MEDICARE
Have his MC # ready I believe current addy and phone # as well as his SS#
the only thing they wont give you is personal info unless you have completed the form they have from their office so while your at it ask for it simply because it takes 5 weeks for them to mail the forms out then it takes another 2-3 months to input the info into his file.
I just got off the phone with them a few days ago I cant remember the exact time frame but it was something ridiculous like that so you might as well get that done now