The Physician's Responsibility under the New Medicare Reimbursement for Hospice Care

New legislation to provide Medicare reimbursement for hospice care¹ has created problems for physicians who are involved in the treatment of the terminally ill. Under current proposals,² hospice services will be reimbursed by a certain amount per patient day, according to four categories of level of care, and for a maximum of 210 days. At 210 days, reimbursement will cease, but the hospice program will not be allowed to discharge the patient. The Medicare hospice benefit requires physicians to certify that their patients have six months or less to live before the patients are considered candidates for hospice care; under.