Getting Started with Star City Hospice

• How often can you anticipate visits from our skilled clinical staff? Their regular presence and hospice and palliative care is designed to ensure comprehensive and tailored support. These thoughtfully scheduled interactions are crucial checkpoints for evaluating your needs, adjusting care, and prioritizing comfort.
• How will we ensure comfort and dignity as a patient nears the end? Creating a personalized care plan with our hospice team to determine your loved one’s needs regarding pain management, emotional support, and respectful communication is critical. We understand that every patient is on their own unique journey with unique needs.
• What can you expect as the standard response time for emergencies and after-hour calls? Rest assured, our team is dedicated to swift action, reading signs and behaviors early on, and ensuring your urgent needs are met promptly during emergencies and after hours. Understanding hospice is critical to learning how the facility you are considering responds to emergencies, and if they provide around-the-clock communication.

In accordance with Medicare guidelines, a terminal diagnosis with a prognosis of under six months is required to receive hospice care. However, patients can receive services beyond this timeline if disease progression aligns with the criteria during periodic recertifications. This approach ensures personalized care that adapts to individual needs, prioritizing comfort and comprehensive support throughout this significant phase of life’s journey.

Hospice is fully covered by Medicare and Medicaid Benefits, providing comprehensive financial relief. Moreover, numerous private insurance extend coverage to include copays and deductibles, easing families’ financial burden during this critical care period and providing necessary resources and palliative care. This support ensures your loved one receives the best care and offers solace to you during this emotionally challenging time.

At the heart of our mission is the pledge to offer hospice wherever patients call home, ensuring comfort in familiar surroundings such as residences, assisted living, nursing homes, and hospitals. We understand the profound impact of a familiar environment on well-being during this delicate time. We always aim to make your loved one as comfortable, cared for, and at home as possible. We always try to find a way to say “yes” to any request. 

Absolutely. Throughout care, patients and families retain the autonomy to opt for aggressive treatment or switch hospices. Notifying your provider initiates the process involving any necessary paperwork. Occasionally, patients improve to a point where hospice isn’t needed, and a comprehensive discharge plan is created. Should circumstances change, our team ensures a seamless return to hospice care, always respecting your evolving needs and choices.

Comprehensive hospice care encompasses medications pertinent to the patient’s terminal diagnosis or comfort and indispensable durable medical equipment like hospital beds, oxygen concentrators, and wheelchairs, along with essential supplies such as incontinence products. Moreover, all crucial visits from the hospice interdisciplinary team are included to ensure holistic well-being. It’s important to note that room and board expenses can be privately financed or potentially covered through Medicaid or Long Term Care Insurance, providing a well-rounded and supportive framework tailored to the patient’s needs and providing much-needed financial and emotional relief to you and your loved ones.