QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Q: Whom does LOVING CARE HOSPICE serve ... and how?
A: We provide care for adult and pediatric patients with a wide range of life-limiting illnesses, including (but not limited to):
LOVING CARE focuses on the treatment of physical and emotional pain and symptoms. Palliative care is an active treatment plan, but it is not intended to cure a patient’s underlying disease. All LOVING CARE palliative care treatments focus on enhancing a patient’s comfort and overall quality of life.
Q: Who is on the LOVING CARE Care team?
A: The interdisciplinary LOVING CARE HOSPICE TEAM is made up of trained caregivers who put individual patient and family needs first:
Q: What services does LOVING CARE HOSPICE provide?
A: LOVING CARE HOSPICE covers all prescription drugs, over-the-counter medications, medical equipment and supplies required to treat life-limiting illnesses. In addition, VITAS provides four types of care:
Routine Home Care
LOVING CARE HOSPICE provides residential care in patients' homes and has established partnerships with long-term care facilities and nursing homes, assisted living facilities and residential care facilities for the elderly.
Continuous Care (Intensive Comfort Care)
If a patient develops the need for more constant care, LOVING CARE HOSPICE can provide shifts of hospice staff at the home for a brief period so the patient can avoid being transferred to a hospital.
Inpatient Units
If a patient needs care beyond what can be provided at home, LOVING CARE HOSPICE has special arrangements with local hospitals and other facilities where patients may receive necessary and appropriate care and return home as soon as possible.
Respite Care
Limited to five consecutive days, respite care provides a brief “respite” for the patient’s primary caregiver by admitting the home care patient to an institutional setting without meeting the “inpatient” pain and symptom management criteria.
Q: Who pays for LOVING CARE HOSPICE services?
A: LOVING CARE HOSPICE accepts Medicare, Medi-Cal, private insurance and other forms of reimbursement for its services.
Medicare/Medi-Cal:
Medicare and Medi-Cal programs offer coverage of LOVING CARE HOSPICE services. Since LOVING CARE accepts Medicare and Medi-Cal as 100 percent coverage, there are no out-of-pocket expenses to patients or their loved ones.
For care unrelated to a patient’s primary diagnosis, Medicare and Medi-Cal will continue to provide their normal benefits.
Private Insurance:
Since each insurance company has its own policies, LOVING CARE HOSPICE can contact the patient’s insurer to ask about the coverage provided for hospice care.
A: We provide care for adult and pediatric patients with a wide range of life-limiting illnesses, including (but not limited to):
- Cancer
- Heart disease
- Stroke
- Lung, liver and kidney disease
- Multiple sclerosis
- ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease)
- Alzheimer’s disease
- AIDS
LOVING CARE focuses on the treatment of physical and emotional pain and symptoms. Palliative care is an active treatment plan, but it is not intended to cure a patient’s underlying disease. All LOVING CARE palliative care treatments focus on enhancing a patient’s comfort and overall quality of life.
Q: Who is on the LOVING CARE Care team?
A: The interdisciplinary LOVING CARE HOSPICE TEAM is made up of trained caregivers who put individual patient and family needs first:
- Nurses are experienced in assessing and managing pain; they provide hands-on care.
- Social workers are friendly and skilled listeners who can offer emotional support and help with financial issues and planning.
- Physicians collaborate with the patient’s primary physician and are available for pain and symptom management consultation, as well as to make house calls as needed.
- Home health aides help with personal care, such as bathing and mouth care; they also can help with light cleaning, light laundry and occasional shopping.
- Chaplains offer spiritual support.
- Volunteers, specially trained in hospice, are important elements of the team who are available when they are needed most.
- Bereavement specialists provide grief and loss counseling, memorial services and other support for family and loved ones
Q: What services does LOVING CARE HOSPICE provide?
A: LOVING CARE HOSPICE covers all prescription drugs, over-the-counter medications, medical equipment and supplies required to treat life-limiting illnesses. In addition, VITAS provides four types of care:
Routine Home Care
LOVING CARE HOSPICE provides residential care in patients' homes and has established partnerships with long-term care facilities and nursing homes, assisted living facilities and residential care facilities for the elderly.
Continuous Care (Intensive Comfort Care)
If a patient develops the need for more constant care, LOVING CARE HOSPICE can provide shifts of hospice staff at the home for a brief period so the patient can avoid being transferred to a hospital.
Inpatient Units
If a patient needs care beyond what can be provided at home, LOVING CARE HOSPICE has special arrangements with local hospitals and other facilities where patients may receive necessary and appropriate care and return home as soon as possible.
Respite Care
Limited to five consecutive days, respite care provides a brief “respite” for the patient’s primary caregiver by admitting the home care patient to an institutional setting without meeting the “inpatient” pain and symptom management criteria.
Q: Who pays for LOVING CARE HOSPICE services?
A: LOVING CARE HOSPICE accepts Medicare, Medi-Cal, private insurance and other forms of reimbursement for its services.
Medicare/Medi-Cal:
Medicare and Medi-Cal programs offer coverage of LOVING CARE HOSPICE services. Since LOVING CARE accepts Medicare and Medi-Cal as 100 percent coverage, there are no out-of-pocket expenses to patients or their loved ones.
For care unrelated to a patient’s primary diagnosis, Medicare and Medi-Cal will continue to provide their normal benefits.
Private Insurance:
Since each insurance company has its own policies, LOVING CARE HOSPICE can contact the patient’s insurer to ask about the coverage provided for hospice care.
ADVANCE DIRECTIVE AND LIVING WILL
LOVING CARE Innovative Hospice Care believes that everyone has the right to think about and determine the kind of care he or she would want at the end of life. LOVING CARE is dedicated to expanding the choices available to people with life-limiting illnesses and providing a specialized kind of expert care that is focused on enhancing comfort and overall quality of life, despite advancing illness.
We also believe that personal choice is best served when people seek information, consider their values and discuss their wishes regarding care at the end of life – well in advance of a medical need to exercise those choices. One way to achieve this goal is through advance directives, which are tools for stating your wishes before medical providers might need to know those wishes.
The best known of these tools is the living will, a written document that defines your wishes about medical treatments and what should or should not be done if you are no longer able to express your treatment preferences.
The durable power of attorney for healthcare decisions is another such tool, allowing you to name a proxy representative who could speak for your values and wishes when you are not able to speak for yourself because of illness, injury or debilitation.
Advance directive documents are legally recognized in every state, although each state has established its own parameters for the use of these tools. Click here to find your state's guidelines.
To make sure that your own wishes will be honored at the end of life, we encourage you to:
Many people find it hard to talk about these topics, but have strong opinions about how they would want to be treated. Early planning is the kindest thing you can do for yourself, your family and friends.
There are numerous resources available on the Internet to assist families in discussing and documenting their preferences regarding end-of-life care, and even repositories for storing such documents online. The website of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO), for example, offers information about advance directives and living wills as well as practical advice and assistance to help you talk about your preferences regarding end-of-life care.
NHPCO’s consumer-focused website, Caring Connections, at www.caringinfo.org, provides a wide range of free materials about end-of-life care. For more information on advance care planning and advance directives, call them at 1-800-658-8898.
We also believe that personal choice is best served when people seek information, consider their values and discuss their wishes regarding care at the end of life – well in advance of a medical need to exercise those choices. One way to achieve this goal is through advance directives, which are tools for stating your wishes before medical providers might need to know those wishes.
The best known of these tools is the living will, a written document that defines your wishes about medical treatments and what should or should not be done if you are no longer able to express your treatment preferences.
The durable power of attorney for healthcare decisions is another such tool, allowing you to name a proxy representative who could speak for your values and wishes when you are not able to speak for yourself because of illness, injury or debilitation.
Advance directive documents are legally recognized in every state, although each state has established its own parameters for the use of these tools. Click here to find your state's guidelines.
To make sure that your own wishes will be honored at the end of life, we encourage you to:
- Determine the end-of-life care options available to you
- Decide for yourself what kind of care you would want
- Discuss your end-of-life wishes with loved ones and your physician
- Document so it’s clear for all to see
Many people find it hard to talk about these topics, but have strong opinions about how they would want to be treated. Early planning is the kindest thing you can do for yourself, your family and friends.
There are numerous resources available on the Internet to assist families in discussing and documenting their preferences regarding end-of-life care, and even repositories for storing such documents online. The website of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO), for example, offers information about advance directives and living wills as well as practical advice and assistance to help you talk about your preferences regarding end-of-life care.
NHPCO’s consumer-focused website, Caring Connections, at www.caringinfo.org, provides a wide range of free materials about end-of-life care. For more information on advance care planning and advance directives, call them at 1-800-658-8898.
BEREAVEMENT SUPPORT
Grief is the normal and universal reaction humans have to the loss of those they love. When your loved one dies, you go through a period of bereavement and experience grief that is utterly individual to your experience and yet shares many aspects with all others who grieve.
LOVING CARE Innovative Hospice Care, as a leader in the hospice field, is committed to providing information, education and resources to help those who are going through this period of bereavement. We provide targeted grief support to the surviving loved ones of the patients we have served for at least a year following the patient’s death, but we are also committed to helping other members in the communities we serve. This website contains a broad array of informational and inspirational resourcesthat can help anyone who has experienced a significant loss in their lives.
LOVING CARES’ bereavement services consist of:
LOVING CARE Innovative Hospice Care, as a leader in the hospice field, is committed to providing information, education and resources to help those who are going through this period of bereavement. We provide targeted grief support to the surviving loved ones of the patients we have served for at least a year following the patient’s death, but we are also committed to helping other members in the communities we serve. This website contains a broad array of informational and inspirational resourcesthat can help anyone who has experienced a significant loss in their lives.
LOVING CARES’ bereavement services consist of:
- Quarterly bereavement support letters, newsletters and educational materials
- Bereavement support groups led by professional LOVING CARE staff
- Memorial services provided in different locations
- Bereavement support telephone calls and visits by professional staff and volunteers
- Community resource referral: grief therapists, community support groups, legal services, etc.