Family Voices Indiana

By Emily McKinley, Health Information Specialist In the course of serving families of children and youth with special health care needs, we must address the saddest and most heartbreaking situations, including hospice. Hospice, also known as palliative care, is care for a terminally ill patient that specifically addresses and treats pain and associated symptoms. This care may address physical, emotional, spiritual, and social concerns and is provided during the last six months of one’s life. One provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) provides children and their parents the option of receiving concurrent hospice and curative services. That is to say, Medicaid-eligible children who are battling a terminal illness and their parents may elect to continue treating the illness while receiving palliative care services. Thus, Section 2302 of the ACA aims to provide families with both comfort and hope during the most challenging times. Because this is a relatively new concept, m