The Washington Post: At 100, My Mom had Dementia and Needed Hospice Care
Jeanne Erdmann's article in The Washington Post, "At 100, My Mom had Dementia and Needed Hospice Care. Getting It was Nearly Impossible," describes her role as caregiver and the complexities around hospice care enrollment and reimbursement.
The article, "written with the support of a journalism fellowship from New America Media, the Gerontological Society of America and The John A. Hartford Foundation," talks about the personal journey of a daughter with a mother with dementia and accessing hospice care. "In early 2016, my mom grew even frailer. Hospice made sense. I read the Medicare guidelines and thought she might qualify. From the start, we hit a snag. A hospice intake nurse told us that my mom’s dementia alone was not enough to qualify her — she wasn’t bedridden, and she could speak."
"The Medicare reimbursement schedule is tied to predicting when a person is within six months of death...."There needs to be a more realistic conversation about admission criteria for dementia,” said Timothy Ihrig, a palliative-care physician, who also helped care for his mom."
To read the article, click here.
To learn about The Journalists in Aging Fellows Program, click here.