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Hospice Care
Impact Med Net is a fully accredited hospice agency licensed by the state of California Department of Public Health, as well as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service (license #550007443), to provide coverage to Medicare beneficiaries and participants in the Medi-Cal program. We are accredited by the Joint Commission.
We are a local community Hospice. Impact Med Net provides comprehensive care for terminally ill patients. We also offer support for patients’ loved ones. Our individualized, patient-centered services focus on comfort and enhancing the quality of life for our patients. Impact Med Net empowers patients and their loved ones. We are a full-service agency led by experienced physicians and nurses. Our professionals have several decades of experience helping people transition through the final stage of life. We provide services throughout the-Los Angeles County, San Bernardino County, Orange County, Ventura County areas. Impact Med Net provides services that markedly exceed governmental guidelines and requirements for Hospice care. We continually deliver outstanding care.
Impact Med Net has an entire team of hospice experts ready to help. An intake specialist will quickly contact you once we receive a referral. Next, we arrange a time for you to meet an experienced member of our team who can answer the many questions you have. If your loved one is in the hospital, we can arrange for free transportation to home. Impact Med Net provides regular transportation services as well as stretcher transport with oxygen. We provide grief support and medication delivery services.
Our experienced staff develops a comprehensive care plan based upon your loved one’s unique needs. Your loved one and family will have the expertise of many hospice professionals.
What is Hospice?
Hospice is a program of care and support for people who are terminally ill (with a life expectancy of 6 months or less if the illness runs its normal course) and their families. Here are some important facts about hospice
Hospice helps people who are terminally ill live comfortably.
Hospice isn’t only for people with cancer.
Services typically include physical care, counseling, drugs, equipment, and supplies for the terminal illness and related conditions.
A specially trained team of professionals and caregivers provide care for the “whole person,” including physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs.
The focus is on comfort (palliative care), not curing an illness.
Care is generally given in the home.
Family caregivers can get support.
Palliative care
Palliative care is the part of hospice care that focuses on helping people who are terminally ill, and their families maintain their quality of life. If you’re terminally ill, palliative care can address your physical, intellectual, emotional, social, and spiritual needs. Palliative care supports your independence, access to information, and ability to make choices about your health care.
How your hospice benefit works
If you qualify for hospice care, you and your family will work with your hospice provider to set up a plan of care that meets your needs.
You and your family members are part of a team that may also include:
Doctors
Homemakers
Counselors
Social workers
Pharmacists
Volunteers
Speech-language pathologists
Nurses or nurse practitioners
Hospice aides
Physical and occupational therapists
In addition, a hospice nurse and doctor are on-call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to give you and your family support and care when you need it.
A hospice doctor is part of your medical team. You can choose to include your regular doctor, a nurse practitioner, or a physician’s assistant on your medical team as the attending medical professional.
The hospice benefit allows you and your family to stay together in the comfort of your home unless you need care in an inpatient facility. If your hospice provider decides you need inpatient hospice care, your hospice provider will make the arrangements for your stay.
Who’s eligible for the hospice benefit?
If you have Medicare Part A (Hospital Insurance) AND meet all these conditions, you can get hospice care:
Your hospice doctor and your regular doctor (if you have one) certify that you’re terminally ill (you’re expected to live 6 months or less).
You accept comfort care (palliative care) instead of care to cure your illness.
You sign a statement choosing hospice care instead of other Medicare-covered treatments for your terminal illness and related conditions.
— What Medicare covers? —
You can get a one-time only hospice consultation with a hospice medical director or hospice doctor to discuss your care options and managing your pain and symptoms. You can get this one-time consultation even if you decide not to get hospice care.
Once your hospice benefit starts, Original Medicare will cover everything you need related to your terminal illness, but the care you get must be from a Medicare-approved hospice provider.
Hospice care is usually given in your home, but it also may be covered in a hospice inpatient facility. Depending on your terminal illness and related conditions, the plan of care your hospice team creates can include any or all these services:
Doctor services
Prescription drugs
Nursing care
Medical supplies (like bandages and catheters)
Physical and occupational therapy
Speech-language pathology services
Dietary counseling
Social worker services
Hospice aide and homemaker services
Short-term inpatient care (for pain and symptom management)
Short-term respite care
Speech-language pathology services
Grief and loss counseling for you and your family
Medical equipment (like wheelchairs or walkers)
Any other Medicare-covered services needed to manage your terminal illness and related conditions, as recommended by your hospice team
Respite care
If your usual caregiver (like a family member) needs rest, you can get inpatient respite care in a Medicare-approved facility (like a hospice inpatient facility, hospital, or nursing home). Your hospice provider will arrange this for you. You can stay up to 5 days each time you get respite care. You can get respite care more than once, but only on an occasional basis.
How long you can get hospice care
Hospice care is for people with a life expectancy of 6 months or less (if the illness runs its normal course). If you live longer than 6 months, you can still get hospice care as long as the hospice medical director or other hospice doctor recertifies that you’re terminally ill.
Hospice care is given in benefit periods. You can get hospice care for two 90-day benefit periods followed by an unlimited number of 60-day benefit periods. A benefit period starts the day you begin to get hospice care, and it ends when your 90-day or 60-day benefit period ends. At the start of the first 90-day benefit period, your hospice doctor, and your regular doctor (if you have one) must certify that you’re terminally ill (with a life expectancy of 6 months or less).
Stopping Hospice care
If your health improves or your illness goes into remission, you may no longer need hospice care. You always have the right to stop hospice care at any time. If you choose to stop hospice care, the hospice provider will ask you to sign a form that includes the date your care will end.
No one should ask you to sign any forms about stopping your hospice care at the time you start hospice. Stopping hospice care is a choice only you can make, and you shouldn’t sign or date any forms until the actual date that you want your hospice care to stop. If you were in a Medicare Advantage Plan when you started hospice, you can stay in that plan while getting hospice care, by continuing to pay your plan’s premiums. If you stop your hospice care, you’re still a member of your plan and can continue to get Medicare coverage from your plan after you stop hospice care.
If you weren’t in a Medicare Advantage Plan when you started hospice care, and you decide to stop hospice care, you can continue in Original Medicare. If you’re eligible, you can go back to hospice care at any time.
Medical Staff
Our medical director leads the hospice team. Other physicians, Advanced Practice Registered Nurses, and Physician Assistants aid the director. Patients may choose to keep their physician or use one of our highly qualified medical staff members. The medical staff makes visits to patients in their own homes at no cost. They order medicines to ensure patient comfort and safety. Physicians and other members of the medical staff are experts regarding medications used at the end of life. They carefully order medicines that enable patients to participate as much as possible in their everyday lives while relieving suffering.
Medical staff members conduct physical assessments of patients. They ensure that patients receive state-of-the-art hospice care that complies with current regulations and recommendations. Our medical director or their designee is reachable 24 hours a day. The Impact Med Net medical staff evaluates patients to ensure that they receive the proper level of hospice services based on nationally and internationally recognized criteria. The medical staff determines if additional services such as continuous care are warranted. The medical staff orders individual treatment as needed. These may include specific therapies or wound treatments. The medical staff orders required equipment and makes referrals to other providers if necessary. The medical director or designee reviews patient needs regularly with key members of the hospice team.
