Hospice provides care to someone who has a terminal illness and treatment is no longer an option to prolong life. Even if life cannot be prolonged, comfort measures should be implemented by health care professionals. Hospice addresses the unmet needs of a patient with end-of life care. In some countries such as Australia and Europe, hospice is available for the time of diagnosis to the end of life. The problem here in the United States is that Medicare hospice benefits restrict individuals with a terminal illness who would prefer to pursue curative treatment. The patients must postpone their hospice enrollment until curative treatment is completed or denied. This is why these individuals do not receive the full potential benefits of hospice care (Harrison & Connor, 2016). There are many individuals involved in making choices in health care benefits. They are considered “stakeholders”. The upstream stakeholders in this movement are hospice organizations and insurance companies who push legislation to grow the hospice movement and advocate reimbursement for the terminally ill. The downstream stakeholders are the patients and clinicians. They struggled with the transition from curative to palliative care because there has been a decrease in hospice stay. Another …show more content…
Under the Affordable Care Act, Congress has created a number of measures and programs across all health care provider groups designed to improve the quality of medical care and potentially reduce costs. The Affordable Care Act expanded medical coverage and open up hospice care to Medicare beneficiaries who want to continue with curative care. This Act created services for which Medicaid will pay benefits of terminally ill children. This has led to studies that could provide the evidence supporting Medicare Hospice Benefits expansion for terminally ill