Findings of a major new study of hospice care in America show that hospice services save money for Medicare and bring quality care to patients with life-limiting illness and their families.

The new study from Duke University appears in the October 2007 issue of the professional journal Social Science & Medicine.” The study reinforces what hospice professionals have long known, according to Hospice of Southern Maine.

Study highlights:

Hospice reduced Medicare costs by an average of $2,309 per hospice patient.

Use of hospice decreased Medicare expenditures for cancer patients until the 233rd day of care and until the 153rd day of care for non-cancer patients.

Increasing length of hospice use by just three days would increase savings due to hospice by nearly 10 percent, from around $2,300 to $2,500 per hospice user.

Medicare costs would be reduced for seven out of 10 hospice recipients if hospice has been used for a longer period of time the study found.

“Hospice helps people live with dignity, comfort and compassion and brings needed support to family caregivers – to know definitively that it provides a cost savings to Medicare is an additional benefit,” said Jody Deegan, chief executive officer at Hospice of Southern Maine.

“Given that hospice has been widely demonstrated to improve quality of life of patients and families…the Medicare program appears to have a rare situation whereby something that improves quality of life also appears to reduce costs,” writes lead author Don H. Taylor Jr., assistant professor of public policy at Duke’s Sanford Institute of Public Policy.

The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization reports that 1.3 million patients received hospice care across the U.S. in 2006. Approximately 35 percent of all deaths in the U.S. were under the care of a hospice program. Locally, Hospice of Southern Maine provides care for more than 800 patients a year.

Hospice is not a place, but a philosophy of care that provides pain management, symptom control, psychosocial support and spiritual care to patients and their families.

This study is a landmark independent research effort, not only because it shows cost savings for hospice utilization, but also because it also addresses research flaws and questionable analyses in previous hospice cost studies.

Hospice of Southern Maine is a nonprofit, Medicare-certified licensed hospice program providing comprehensive end-of-life care to patients and families in Cumberland and York counties. Services include nursing, pain and symptom management, companionship and spiritual and bereavement counseling. To learn more about Hospice of Southern Maine’s services, call 289-3640 or visit www.hospiceofsouthernmaine.org.

Hospice information also is available from NHPCO’s Caring Connections at www.caringinfo.org or by calling the HelpLine at 800-658-8898.

Jennifer Foy is development director of Hospice of Southern Maine, Scarborough.