Treating the Child, Not Just the Cancer

Yesterday’s New York Times' Patient Voices highlighted childhood cancer. Not one of the parents whose children had died from cancer mentioned hospice care. This is hardly surprising; hospice is an option rarely offered by physicians while the focus is on fighting the disease. When children are involved, physicians’ referrals to hospice can be even rarer*.

Last year, however, with the signing of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care law, the decision to enter hospice care has been made easier for parents and their children’s doctors. The law allows children with a life-limiting illness who are eligible for Medicaid or the state-based Children's Health Insurance Programs to receive hospice or palliative care, without having to cease curative treatments such as chemotherapy.

Joanne Kenen writes in Kaiser Health News how this type of concurrent treatment works in Massachusetts, where it became available in 2006 as part of the state’s own health insurance overhaul. The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) and the District of Columbia Pediatric Palliative Care Collaboration (DCPPCC) have released the Concurrent Care for Children: Implementation Toolkit to assist states interested in expanding their pediatric hospice and palliative care services.

Allowing children who are facing these serious diseases to receive the benefits of hospice and palliative care, while at the same time pursuing curative treatment options, is a welcome turn of events and will offer support to families and children undergoing the challenging journey of life-threatening childhood illness.