Louisiana hospice cuts worse than previously announced

Louisiana’s health department is acknowledging that planned cuts to the state’s Medicaid program will eliminate hospice care for all Medicaid recipients beginning in February. Hospice care aims to make dying people more comfortable in their final months of life. In announcing reductions to hospice care funding last week, officials with Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration said hospice care at nursing homes would not be eliminated. However, The Times-Picayune reports that Kathleen Meyers, a spokeswoman for the state health agency, confirmed there will be no reimbursement for hospice services beginning Feb. 1. Jamey Boudreaux, executive director of the Louisiana-Mississippi Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, says he learned from the health department earlier this week that the initial characterization of the cutbacks was wrong. In an email, Meyers writes that dying people will still be able to access pain medication through the Medicaid pharmacy program, and that home health services will also be available. “Emotional support” services offered by hospice teams will be eliminated, but Meyers says the state will connect nonprofit and faith-based groups with dying Medicaid recipients. “Effective Feb. 1, 2013, Medicaid will no longer reimburse for hospice services,” Meyers writes. People currently in hospice will reportedly keep those services through the rest of their lives. The full story is available here.