A message from Edo Banach.March 15, 2019 The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission’s (MedPAC’s) March 2019 Report to Congress was released today. To view the report, click here. NHPCO leadership met with MedPAC staff in January 2019 and reviewed the chapter…

Dr. Karen Wyatt, M.D., a hospice physician and death awareness advocate, has seen patients in a variety of settings including hospice, nursing homes, and hospitals – and though the level of physical comfort may vary depending upon the care, the…

Doctors in our modern medical system are trained in ways to heal, restore, prolong life, and prevent death. But what happens when there is no more healing, no more restoration, no further prevention available and the only thing being prolonged…

You are only alone in adversity when you choose to be. Type of volunteer: Bereavement and bedside vigil Hometown: Syracuse, New York Favorite place you’ve visited: I loved Istanbul, Turkey, Florence and Rome, Italy – but I’m always happy to…

When something life-changing like terminal illness occurs in someone’s life, directly or indirectly, we don’t always know why it’s happening to us. Instead of stressing over that, what becomes more important and can offer more help in our healing —spiritually…

According to the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP, in 2015 there were approximately 43.5 million caregivers that provided unpaid for care to an adult or child in the last 12 months – with 34.2 million providing unpaid care to…

Type of volunteer: Patient-family advocate and community outreach Hometown: Boulder, Colorado Favorite place you’ve lived and visited: Lived: On the Appalachian Trail for six months!Visited: New Zealand What convinced you to move to the Lowcountry? Two things – no snow…

We spend so much time planning for all sorts of activities in our lives – while we project our lives into the future by planning, hoping, and expecting average daily outcomes, there is one thing that always seems to be left…

Pain can take on several different dimensions including physiological (the actual physical sensation and the person’s accompanying response), cognitive (patients who might anticipate pain based on memories of when they had pain in the past), and emotional. Hospice is about…

We prepare for the end of our life by creating living wills and power of attorneys, but when the dying process actually begins to take place, we still tend to reach for medical technology in the attempt to exhaust all…