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Dee James is perplexed as to why so many African Americans don’t take advantage of the all-encompassing and comprehensive hospice care for a terminal, or end-of-life, illness prognosis. Besides, every time you get paid, portions of your paycheck are being siphoned off to pay for Medicare, which in turn subsidizes hospice care for those who unfortunately acquire terminal illnesses.

“The hospice benefit, which is covered by health care, covers 100 percent of medical costs associated with end-of-life care. So all the medical equipment, all the medication related to the diagnosis that makes the patient appropriate for hospice, [which includes] the hospital beds, the servicing physicians, nurses, nurse’s aides, chaplains, social workers — and we have volunteers,” says James, the community liaison for Vitas Innovative Hospice Care, the largest provider of end-of-life care in the country. “All [of] those people provide comfort care to the families and the patient to make sure that the end is greeted with some sort of understanding, appreciation and greater insight.”

“We find that African Americans use hospice at a rate of less than 10 percent. Ninety percent of the people that we see in this business are nonAfrican American. That’s somewhat contradictory when you consider that African Americans have the highest disease rates in many of the major disease categories. So on one hand it doesn’t make sense that you’ve paid into Medicare all of your life, then don’t use it when it’s open and free to you.” James says four cents of every dollar earned goes to Medicare to pay for hospice care.

“It’s where people go to receive quality care, at a price that has already been paid for by your lifelong contributions to Medicare,” says James. – terry shropshire

Visit Vitas Innovative Hospice Care at www.vitas.com.

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