Home Care & Hospice Find A Champion In Barbara Boxer

Throughout her 21-year congressional career, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), has been an outspoken advocate for medical research, women's health, patients rights, and health care reform. During a recent visit to home care patients in her state, Sen. Boxer also demonstrated her support for home care and hospice as humane and cost-effective alternatives to institutionalization.

There is also a nice mention of California Home care And Hospice in the article. You can get a back issue of the magazine that published this writing by visiting Caring Magazine's Website or you can view the actual pages and read the whole article by click on the pages below.

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Early Referral For Hospice Care From CHCH

The earlier patients with a life-threatening illness are introduced to the Hospice program, the earlier they and their families have access to a wide range of support services, resources, and information to help them through their time of crisis. Medicare beneficiaries can also realize significant savings in the cost of their care.

Tax Status Should Not Be Confused With Mission

Community service organizations that are not governmental have a choice as to what tax status they wish to be for the purpose of conducting business. Many private agencies choose to be not-for-profit agencies because they feel it gives them an advantage in receiving grants, raising funds and presenting themselves as an organization interested in the betterment of the community. The only difference between a not-for-profit organization and a for-profit organization is that the for-profit pays taxes on it's bottom line while the not-for-profit does not. Tax status, however, should not be confused with agency mission.

California Home Care And Hospice, Inc. is a proprietary organization. That is, it pays taxes on the revenues it receives. CHCH is the first Medicare-Certified hospice to provide services in the Merced County area. As such, it is able to participate in the Medicare and Medi-Cal programs both of whom provide coverage and hospice services which the agency accepts as payment in full.

Sometimes there is confusion that being a for-profit means that the patient and family will be billed for services. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The hospice ethic is that services are provided to individuals regardless of their ability to pay, an ethic that CHCH subscribes to and believes in firmly. The hospice movement believes that individuals should be able to die in the comfort of their home surrounded by family and friends. The family members of CHCH patients in this last year can attest to the fact that they have received this kind of compassion without being bothered about financial reimbursement.

I am very fond of saying that the creation of the Medicare Hospice Benefit is the most enlightened piece of legislation that Congress ever passed. Because of the way the benefit is structured, it allows hospice agencies to receive payment for their services from the government without having to charge families. It was designed this way so that the part of living we call dying, could occur with caring and compassion being the emphasis. CHCH is very grateful for the opportunity to provide services under such an arrangement with the Federal Medicare program and the state Medi-Cal program.

Another concern that individuals have about proprietary organizations is their financial support of the agency is not tax-deductible. In anticipation of this issue, CHCH created a tax-exempt organization called Loving Support For Hospice, Inc. This organization receives the memorials and contributions that are donated to us on behalf of our patients. Loving Support For Hospice, Inc. is a non-for-profit, tax exempt organization and all donations to it are tax deductible. The donated funds are used to support the care provided to individuals so that we can continue our mission of providing care regardless of the individuals insurance coverage.

The last issue I would like to clarify concerns volunteers. The hospice movement has always been dependant upon volunteers to assist in the provision of services. Volunteers are important not only because they are a source of donated services, but because they fulfill a very special need of the terminally ill. Dying individuals have a need to be connected to the community at large. This is because they so often experience isolation due to individuals not knowing what to say to them. Volunteers represent the good old-fashioned notion of one neighbor taking care of another for no other reason than they believe in the power of individuals caring for each other. CHCH needs and respects volunteers because of the important role they play in the final days of patients lives.

The mission of CHCH is caring for the terminally ill and their bereaved families.

I hope I have laid to rest, the confusion between tax status and service, so that volunteers from the community will continue to join CHCH in the provision of this vital service to Merced and Madera Counties.

Written By Kate Colburn