VNS Health EasyCare: Hospice Care (at Home)
Treatment and support at home for those with advanced illness approaching end of life - when life expectancy is months, not years.
How To Receive
Details on how to apply
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Helpful app simplifies family caregiving by combining your loved one’s insurance benefits and medical records into one user-friendly platform while enhancing your caregiving skills
Hospice is comprehensive, compassionate care focused on providing physical relief and emotional support for individuals with advanced illnesses. Its main goals are to ensure comfort, enhance the quality of life, and preserve dignity and choice so that life can still be lived as fully and comfortably as possible as its end approaches. Hospice focuses on the relief of pain and disruptive symptoms while attending to emotional and spiritual needs. No curative treatment is sought for the terminal illness and no resuscitation is performed in the event of cardiopulmonary arrest. Hospice care prioritizes comfort and quality of life by reducing pain and suffering.
Hospice does not mean that all treatment is withdrawn. Medications for existing conditions are still administered, provided the recipient can take them, and medications for symptom management may even be added. Likewise, should an immediate illness or injury occur unrelated to the terminal illness, such as an infection or broken bone, it will be treated. Otherwise, exacerbations of the terminal illness will be managed with therapies and medications intended to deliver relief and comfort and not with aggressive efforts such as those performed in hospitals.
People are eligible for hospice care once their provider has determined that the remaining life expectancy is 6 months or less should the illness be allowed to run its normal course (i.e., without aggressive treatments).
Covered services include drugs for symptom control and pain relief, short-term respite care (for caregivers), and home care. The health plan will pay for hospice services and any Part A and Part B services related to the terminal prognosis, as well as continue to provide coverage for services not covered under Medicare Part A or B or not related to the terminal prognosis. If non-emergency, non-urgent services are needed that are covered under Medicare Part A or B and not related to the terminal prognosis, the cost for these services depends on the use of a network provider (i.e., in-network versus out-of-network cost-sharing).
If non-hospice care is required, that is care not related to the terminal prognosis, contact the health plan for authorization and arrangement.
About us
Helpful is an app to make caregiving easier. We integrate your loved one’s insurance benefits, medical records and caregiving guides into an immediate, accessible and user-friendly experience. Helpful supports your care needs by eliminating administrative tasks and providing technology to support your caregiving experience.
