HOSPICE CARE: Senator Asks HCFA to Review Six-Month Rule
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) yesterday asked HCFA to take six- months to determine if Medicare's requirement that hospice patients have a life expectence of less than six- months is impeding access to end-of-life care, the Wall Street Journal reports. Grassley, chair of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, said, "There is plenty of confusion" over the current rules. He added, "My feeling is even though the six-month rule was not intended to be arbitrary it has turned out to be arbitrary." The committee heard testimony yesterday from hospice care experts who said the law "created a deadline for people to expire." Former Sen. Robert Dole (R-Kan.), who wrote the original hospice care law, testified he had never intended the rule to act as a "barrier" for those accessing care. In a letter to HCFA, Grassley asked Medicare to determine if the time limit requirement should be replaced by hospice eligibility based on patients' "disease trajectory" or how long someone is bedridden. A spokesperson for HCFA said the agency will "seriously consider" the request when it receives the letter. HCFA Administrator Nancy-Ann DeParle sent a letter this week to hospice care providers clarifying a "disturbing misperception" that providers and patients would be reprimanded if patients lived longer than six months (Lagnado, 9/19).
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