Saturday's Los Angeles Times featured a story and accompanying slide show and audio that the George Mark Hospice, the only free-standing hospice and respite care center for children in the country, may need to close due to financial constraints. The hospice is funded mostly by donations and grants, only 5% of the care provided is reimbursed by other means.
Some states are working on with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid to be able to provide hospice services for children while not requiring them to forgo curative treatments. California received such a waiver in December 2008. Children's Hospice International is one group working to make these changes more widespread and has supported a bill (HR 722) that would give all states the option of providing similar care models under Medicaid.
