CMS Outlines Rights Of Medicare Hospice Patients

Medicare beneficiaries with terminal illnesses have their right to determine how they receive end-of-life care outlined for the first time in a new regulation soon to be published by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

In the first overhaul of regulations governing the hospice industry since 1983, the new Medicare Conditions of Participation (CoP), include explicit language on patient rights that had not existed under the previous regulations.

Although many hospice patients are already active in their own treatment plans, this regulation is the first to set out a detailed list of patient rights.

Specifically, the rule says, patients who choose hospice, or palliative care, over curative treatment are entitled to such things as participation in their treatment plan; the right to effective pain management, the right to refuse treatment and the right to choose his or her own physician.

Norman DeLisle, MDRC
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