While most hospice care is provided in the comfort of the patient’s home or long-term care community, there are times when another alternative best meets the changing needs of the patient and family. The Samaritan Center at Mt. Holly and the Samaritan Center at Voorhees – Samaritan’s two South NJ inpatient facilities – offer a home-like setting to support patients and families when their hospice care needs require out-of-home support from Samaritan.
Inpatient hospice services at a location outside the home may be the best choice for you or your family if:
adjustments and monitoring. Medicare calls this the General Inpatient Level of Hospice Care.
Most patients, when choosing any of these additional inpatient hospice services, receive what Medicare calls the routine hospice level of services – one of four levels of hospice care covered by the Medicare Hospice Benefit. Routine hospice level of care is usually provided in the home or a long-term care facility where your loved one lives.
Sometimes, however, hospice patients receiving the routine hospice care level are unable to remain in their home. Other patients being discharged from the inpatient level of hospice care are unable to return home for a variety of reasons. Perhaps, for example, there is no one available to care for the patient round-the-clock in the home due to work commitments or because relatives live too far away. At other times, family members who live within the home have serious health concerns of their own that make caregiving too difficult or unsafe. Or perhaps the family requires several days to a week to make arrangements for their loved one’s return to home.
In some cases, transporting a very fragile patient home to resume a routine level of care would prove too physically or emotionally burdensome, and families ask if their loved one might continue on at the inpatient center.
In these and other special circumstances, Samaritan now offers families the option to have their loved one receive the routine hospice care within our inpatient hospice service centers on a private-pay option for room and board.
In this private-pay option, Medicare or the patient’s other insurance would cover the routine level of hospice care services (hospice team, medications, medical equipment) that are usually provided within the home. The family would elect to pay a weekly fee for the patient’s room and board at the inpatient center. If, at any time, the patient’s pain and symptoms again elevate to meet the criteria for the inpatient level of hospice care, then both medical services and room and board would be covered according to your plan’s benefits.
Do you believe that you, your patient or your loved one can benefit from any of Samaritan Hospice’s inpatient services in NJ? We encourage you to speak directly with our nurses about how we can help with your loved one’s needs, or to arrange an assessment visit. Call us 24/7 at (856) 596-1600.