"February 17, 2004 (Alexandria, Va) Earlier access to hospice care for people living with both cancer and non-cancerous diagnoses will bring superior end-of-life care to patients and their families and will improve cost effectiveness of hospice care, reports the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO). Earlier access improves cost effectiveness by reducing hospitalizations and expensive curative therapies that may offer little or no benefit to the patient.

Hospice research published in today's issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine indicates savings of 7 to 17 percent among patients with aggressive forms of cancer. NHPCO data also reveals that length of service among cancer patients tends to be consistently higher than with other conditions, therefore improving cost effectiveness.
"Hospice has always looked at each patient and family as a unique case requiring an individualized care plan. Different illnesses require different services and associated costs will vary, of course." remarked J. Donald Schumacher, PsyD, NHPCO president and CEO. "NHPCO's research has shown that for a great many patients hospice not only saves the health care system money but can also drastically reduce the financial impact for families while bringing them the care they want."

Recent research shows that quality of care provided by hospice is superior. This January, a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (01/07/04) found that hospice care provides significantly higher levels of satisfaction, results in fewer unmet patient and family caregiver needs, and fewer concerns with care. Seventy percent of family members of patients who received hospice care at home rated care as "excellent."

"It's an ethical issue--Are we willing to spend money to provide this specialized care at the end of life understanding that, overall, the government won't spend more, but also knowing that care for some groups of patients might be more costly?" commented Susan Miller, Assistant Professor of Community Health, Brown University School of Medicine, and a researcher who focusing on studying end-of-life care in nursing homes.

Counseling and bereavement services play a critical role not reflected in Medicare costs. Supportive counseling during the illness and bereavement care for one year following the death of the patient are services that that set hospice apart. Studies have shown that spouses who have experienced a death under hospice care tend to live longer than those who have experienced a death without hospice services.
Delivering the highest quality of care to dying patients and support to their families is a priority among the nation's 3,200 hospice care providers.

National Hospice Foundation research reports that almost 80 percent of Americans would prefer to die in their homes, free of pain, surrounded by family and loved ones. Only 10 percent of all patients who died under hospice care in 2001 died in a hospital.
Hospice is a philosophy of care that utilizes an interdisciplinary team of medical professionals and trained volunteers to provide pain-management, symptom control, psychosocial support, and spiritual care to the dying and their families. Medicare, Medicaid, most private insurance plans, HMOs, and other managed care organizations cover the costs of hospice care.

To find a hospice provider in the U.S. or for more information on hospice care, please contact the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization at www.hospiceinfo.org or call 1-800-658-8898.

For more information, contact:
Jon Radulovic
Vice President, Communications
National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization
1700 Diagonal Road, Suite 625
Alexandria, VA 22314
Ph: 703/837-3139
Fax: 703/837-1233"

Copied from an e-mail transmission received from the NHPCO.