Medicare / Hospice Information needed, SOON!!!

[tgreen]

My fathers is a Stage IV NSCLC patient with brain, liver, adrenal and spinal mets. He was diagnosed in April 2003, he has had 3 carbo/taxol treatments, which did no good, he will have his third taxotere treatment next week. he has also had 13 radiation treatments or as he refers to the "Zaps" for lung and spinal mets. He is beginning to wonder if it is all worth it. We are interested in finding Home Care for him. If anyone does have any experience with Medicare and Home Health, please post. This is a topic that is badly needed and that there are very few resources (readily available) on. We need to know what Medicare will cover. Likewise, will Hospice provide day care (4-5 hours /day) where we can continue to work and provide for our families while still having our sick parents, spouses, signicant other, or children cared for?

Any help would be appreciated.

Good Luck and May God Bless You,

Tracy

[Carolsdaughter]

Tracy,

I don't have experience with medicare but I do some with hospice. When he used hospice here they still wanted the primary care givers to be the family and the had help with others areas. We had a nurse, homehealth aide, volunteers, and a social worker. They also help with getting meds and providing equiptment.

I wish you the very best, Shelly

[Ann]

Although Hospice was a wonderful help to me, I still was the primary caretaker for my husband. They had an aide that came three times a week to bathe him. The RN came twice a week. They have a volunteer group of people that come and sit while you run errands, etc. but I never used that service. Meds were delivered to the door after the RN ordered them. This service was paid for by my insurance. I'm not sure what Medicare will or will not cover, as Dennis wasn't diagnosed long enough to be eligible for benefits. If you have a large family, I would try and begin a rotation schedule. Sorry I couldn't be of more help. Let me know if there is anything else I can be of help with. Oh....insurance will pay for hospital bed and all needed equipment rentals.

[Cindy RN]

Contact the hospital you are having chemo done at and ask about hospice. They will have the names of them in your area. Then call them. Ask them about the medicare coverage. I think everyone is different depending on their diagnosis and prognosis. They do help with a lot of things but I do know they help the family learn how to care for the patient. Good luck.

[Guest]

My mother in law was recently admitted to Hospice - we got a hospital bed, bedside comode, wheelchair, bedpan, and anything else we need we just tell the nurse who comes 2x per week and she orders it and Medicare pays for it - (she's 72 so Medicare is her primary insur) Hospice still won't totally take over, we have a nurse aide coming every day (7x/week) to bath and dress her, an RN comes 2x week to just basically take vitals and make sure she doesn't need more meds, etc. We are looking into hiring private duty to help us out - ask around for private individuals - we wanted to go that route instead of going with a Home Health agency - we just have it in our mind that she would get better care with private individual instead of an agency, but that may just be us being quarky. You could also ask an aide that you really like if they do side work and get them to help you on their off days if they are available. It's just me and my husband doing EVERYTHING 24/7 so we need to find someone quick before we both crack - no one understands how hard this is until you go through it. Hang in there.