Dear Alan,
My heart is aching for you and these unthinkable challenges facing you at a time when your emotional and physical resources are so depleted. Life just seems so unfair sometimes.
A good hospice can go a long ways towards making both your physical body comfortable and helping you to come to a sense of peace. I encourage you to pursue this . If there is more than one hospice in your area, you might want to check out my blog post on how to choose a really good hospice (because they are absolutely NOT all the same):[url]
http://sheddinglightonthecancerjourney. ... e-part-ii/[/url]
There is the hard part about in-patient hospice facilities that the general public does not understand. I only discovered this only recently when I had a long conversation with the executive director of our local hospice about how I myself would be able to take advantage of the new inpatient unit our hospice is building, when it is my time to die.
Here it is: if the hospice you are considering accepts Medicare payments for its patients (and almost all do), then there are only 2 possible ways that Medicare will cover the inpatient costs, and both of them are limited to short-term stays. The first is uncontrolled symptoms. You might be able to get in under this one, but can only stay until your situation is stabilized.
The second is respite for your caregiver: that is, the caregiver is at the breaking point and needs a break in order to be able to continue. I believe that is limited to 14 days, but I'm not 100% sure.
I do not know how this works if the patient does not have Medicare or if Medicare and private insurance are interchangeable in this situation. You would need to make very detailed inquiries about this-- because it is a nightmare to be comfortable in an inpatient unit and to suddenly be informed that you cannot stay there any longer. That happened to me with my dad, who was in what I now know was a sleazy hospice. I was under the impression that he could stay there till his death and then they suddenly told me that I had 3 days to find someplace else for him. I did transfer him to another facility, where he died 2 weeks later. This is why you will need to ask a lot of very pointed questions about the allowed length of your stay to prevent this.
There is a third way that one can die in an inpatient hospice unit: you can choose to pay the full price, which I imagine varies from hospice to hospice. As I recall, I was quoted around $200 per day as a guesstimate for the cost at our future hospice inpatient unit.
I know that this goes against what most Americans think about hospice care. Even as a 28-year hospice worker, I was totally shocked. What most of us do not understand is just how little hospices are reimbursed by Medicare for their patients-- not even close to what it actually costs. This is why true non-profit hospices rely so heavily on private donations and fundraiser just to stay afloat.
Alan, I hope this information helps in giving you some direction. Fell free to PM me if you have any other questions. I send you heartfelt wishes for comfort and peace,
Rachel