Frequently Asked Questions

• Palliative, comfort care
• Pain control
• Emotional support
• Spiritual care as requested
• Quality of life
• Patient dignity
• Bereavement services for loved ones
• Education

Our goal is to improve the quality of life for our patients. Pain is a limiting factor in achieving this goal. Our approach is to control pain and other symptoms with professional medical care. Our Medical Director is board certified in palliative care, and has experience in directing Transitions LifeCare Nurses on the latest medications and methods of pain and symptom relief. Our chaplains and social workers are available to assist patients and family members with spiritual and emotional pain.

Transitions LifeCare Hospice services are available to individuals who:

• Have a life-limiting illness, in the opinion of an attending physician and a hospice medical director.
• Reside, or are able to reside, within our service areas in Oklahoma.
• Have made a decision with their attending physician to seek quality of life and comfort care, rather than curative care.
• Agree to the course of care established in the Hospice Plan of Care between Transitions LifeCare, the patient, and the attending physician.

Our care is based on need-not on the ability to pay. Transitions LifeCare Hospice provides care to patients facing end-of-life issues without regard to types of illness, age, race, color, religion, creed, gender, national origin, ethnicity, disability, life circumstances, payment source, or ability to pay.

Transitions LifeCare provides care for patients with any recognized terminal diagnoses, including:

• Alzheimer’s disease
• Lung diseases
• Cardiovascular diseases
• Renal diseases
• AIDS
• Liver diseases
• Failure to thrive
• Neuromuscular degenerative diseases
• Cancers of all categories
• Any other life-limiting illnesses

Patients with multiple medical problems that result in a life-limiting prognosis are eligible for our care, even if a single diagnosis alone does not represent a life-limiting prognosis.

Admission to Transitions LifeCare is based on need, rather than ability to pay. Transitions LifeCare Hospice is certified to receive reimbursement from the following sources:

• Medicare Private insurance and managed care plans
• Private pay (on a sliding scale if funds are available)

Medicare patients are eligible for hospice care when they decide to choose palliative care from Transitions LifeCare, and their physician (when the patient has a preferred physician) and hospice medical director certify they have a medical prognosis of six or fewer months to live if the illness runs its normal course.

However, beneficiaries are not restricted to only six months of coverage. There is no limit on how long an individual beneficiary can receive hospice services as long as they continue to meet the eligibility criteria and a physician continues to properly and conscientiously recertify the six-month prognosis.

Yes. Transitions LifeCare strives to enable patients to remain in their own homes or in private residences whenever possible. Transitions LifeCare physicians, nurses, home health aides, and other staff provide palliative care for terminally-ill patients in various situations and settings, including:

• In-home or private residential care
• Hospital Inpatient care for pain control, symptom management, and respite purposes
• Nursing Home
• Assisted Living Center
• Respite care available in various settings
• Continuous 24 hours-a-day care during crisis periods

Yes. Transitions LifeCare works with many facilities to provide high quality hospice care to individuals residing in alternative settings, such as hospitals, nursing homes, adult living facilities, skilled nursing facilities, and other residential care settings.

At anytime during a life limiting illness, it is important to discuss all of the patient’s care options, including hospice. The earlier hospice becomes involved, the more it can do to help make the patient’s final days, weeks and months as comfortable and satisfying as possible. People receiving hospice care must be certified by a physician to have a life-limiting prognosis of six months or less if the disease runs its normal course.

Our hope is that your condition would improve to where you do not meet eligibility criteria. However, if your condition remains unchanged or should deteriorate you will continue to receive services. Many hospice patients live beyond six months, in some cases may live several years while receiving the many benefits of hospice care.

Hospice differs from other healthcare because it is not seeking a cure for the condition rather to provide comfort and support to the patient.

Hospice care combines the wishes of the patient and family with the treatment recommendations of the hospice team. The team may include, physician services, skilled nurses, aides, chaplains, social workers, bereavement support, trained volunteers, as well as a number of other services.

Transitions LifeCare respects the right of every patient and family to make decisions about where they live and what that arrangement involves. We will never refuse to care for someone based on the fact that they have chosen to live alone.

In some cases it is necessary to be hospitalized. In the event that a need for hospitalization arises, Transitions LifeCare will facilitate admission to an in-patient facility where the patient can receive the care he or she requires.

Our motto states, “We will provide the right care to every patient, every time.” This motto is the driving force behind what we do. Our staff is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year to assist patients and families with the needs, or questions that arise. We insist that you call if you think of something we can help with.

Illness sometimes causes a person to require 24-hour custodial care. Too often a family is not able to provide this level of care and the patient requires skilled services. In some cases, the family is able to pay for skilled services in the home. Transitions LifeCare will work to facilitate a connection with a reputable agency if this is the family’s wish. In other cases, financial limitations may be present. In these instances, our caring staff will assist the family in selecting a skilled facility for their loved one. Transitions LifeCare is also able to offer guidance with the process of filing applications and claims for assistance for those who qualify.

You do have choice regarding care and treatment of yourself or a loved one who is seriously ill. Anyone can request these services. Patients do not need to be homebound in order to receive hospice services and most physicians know about hospice and will provide honest information about the appropriateness and benefits of the hospice option. If a family member or caregiver feels it might be time for hospice, a call to Transitions LifeCare is the first step. We will provide a free patient evaluation and make the necessary phone calls to physicians, etc.

Yes. Transitions LifeCare will work with your personal physician in developing an ongoing plan of care which meets your needs. Your physician can continue to bill Medicare Part B for his/her services.

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