Strict end-of-life funding rules test doctors’ ability to predict the timing of death
Palliative care doctors hope they will find the system easier to deal with once an extension option is introduced next year.
Estimating a patient’s death date is not an exact science, especially when it could be months away.
Yet under the Federal Government’s Support at Home program, introduced last year, doctors are essentially being asked to do that.
The program’s End-of-Life Pathway offers patients aged 65 and older $25,000 in home care funding, but only for three months.
If patients are still alive after the three months, they lose the funding — and cannot reapply.
