Hospice Eligibility Criteria for COPD and Lung Disease

What is COPD?

If you are terminally diagnosed with Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, also known as COPD or lung disease, or know someone who is and want more information regarding the eligibility for hospice care services. Keep reading for more information on what the next steps you should take.

Pulmonary disease is a condition well known with different terminal stages. With the following criteria met for COPD, the patient could be eligible for hospice care services.

Chronic lung disease with debilitate dyspnea and progression of the pulmonary disease can come with:

Hypoxemia with oxygen levels of 88% or less
Right heart failure
Resting tachycardia

Patients with COPD

Most patients are eligible for hospice services, and about 30% of people die from COPD have experienced hospice services. This disease is very common among with other respiratory diseases.

Clinical observation has been viewed beforehand in sending a patient to a hospice facility. Usually, healthcare providers have a time stamp for a patient with this disease. They urgently suggest to send patients with COPD symptoms to hospice facility, symptoms like persistent breathlessness, lack ability to leave the house, and frequent hospital visits.

The final stages for COPD can be difficult to handle, which is why its important to have support from a health team such as hospice care or palliative care.

Many patients don’t now when the right time to be emitted to a hospice care. Usually, the urgent signs are having: trouble breathing all the time, multiple hospital visit for lung infection and respiratory failure, right heart failure and low or high levels of carbon dioxide within the blood.

The next steps to end-of-life with COPD

Most of the time patients who have been under hospice care with COPD live a little longer then the 6-month range given. This is why COPD patients gain more benefits because of the higher surviving rate.

Medicare hospice benefits are the main indicator of the survival rates for COPD patients. They have researched many cancerous diseases and non-cancerous to see what the outcome was within the differences in why COPD patients are the main patients benefiting from these services offered. COPD Medicare eligibility is mainly used with the many services includes that offer the right treatments given to patients.

Determining the end factor for the stages of the COPD, you can indicate whether it is time to be referred to a hospice care facility or other services.

First Stage: would be having not many symptoms while diagnosed or not diagnosed with this condition.
Second Stage: are mild cough with shortness of breath.
Third Stage: having a chronic cough not being able to function daily activities with fatigue.
Fourth Stage: leads to the final stage with not function any activities and severe symptoms.

Your physician can determine the stages you’re in as COPD patient for you to make further planning in extra health care services such as hospice care.

Many treatments are offered out there in many health care facilities that will help cope with many symptoms from COPD. Although COPD is a terminal illness many palliative and hospice care specialize in the treatments and coping method options for COPD patients.

To learn more about being an eligible candidate for hospice care as a COPD patient, please reach out to us for more information.