Missing full benefit of hospice care

ROBERT POZEN and Cathy Schoen addressed many reversible reasons for the high rate of hospital readmission in the United States ("How rehospitalizations are hurting Medicare," Op-ed, Aug. 14). For many patients, rehospitalization occurs because of advancing illness and lack of outpatient supportive services that best meet patients' needs.

What the op-ed neglected to mention is the associated underuse of hospice services for patients with advanced chronic or life-limiting illness. The hospice Medicare benefit could provide many of the recommendations Pozen and Schoen suggest, including monitoring patients after discharge, delivering the patient's medications associated with the primary disease without any cost to the patient, home oxygen and durable medical equipment, and 24-hour nurse availability for emergencies.

Hospice is a robust insurance benefit that not only provides support to patients and their families at the final days and hours of life, but can provide optimal therapies to patients with life-limiting illness so that they can spend more time doing what they enjoy with the people they love and fewer days in hospitals and doctor's offices.

Too often hospice is only considered at the final days of one's life. When this happens, the full benefit of hospice care is often missed.

Dr. SUZANA MAKOWSKI
Grafton
The writer is in the division of palliative medicine at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester.