Palliative Care And Supportive Care…Improving Quality Of Life
Living with a serious illness can create physical challenges like pain, symptoms or side effects from medication… and even emotional concerns like anxiety or depression…that can affect your quality of life.
Palliative care is specialized medical care for people with serious illnesses, offering expert pain and symptom management to treat the whole person, at any age, and at any stage of illness.
A team of palliative medicine and supportive care experts provide highly coordinated medical care that improves quality of life while your physicians work to cure or manage your condition. Palliative care can help you gain strength, improve your ability to tolerate medical treatments and live a longer, better life.
The New England Journal of Medicine reported that patients with serious illness who accessed early palliative care support in addition to standard treatments had improved symptom control, enhanced quality of life and lived longer than similar patients who had treatments without palliative care support.
Is Palliative Care The Same As Hospice?
Palliative care helps manage pain and symptoms and improve your quality of life at any stage of illness. It can be provided in conjunction with treatments intended to cure the illness.
Hospice is for patients whose doctors have determined they likely have less than six months to live, and who want their care to focus on comfort and quality of life.
Choosing Palliative Care
Palliative Care can help patients living with serious or life-threatening illnesses, such as:
- Cancer
- Dementia
- Diabetes
- Heart disease
- Kidney disease
- Lung disease
- Neurological disorders like multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson’s Disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)
- Stroke
Paying for Palliative Care
Palliative care is a clinical consultation service that is covered by most insurance plans, including Medicare and Medicaid. Consultations are billed under Medicare Part B, similar to a physician’s visit. Standard co-pays apply.
Anyone can request a consultation in palliative medicine and supportive care. Often, the patient’s doctor makes the recommendation. A patient or family member and contact the palliative care provider directly to schedule a consultation.
This information is not to be considered legal advice. If you have questions about it, please contact us.