The hospice
benefit is designed to provide palliative care to individuals with
prognoses of less than six months to live if the terminal illness
runs its normal course. The benefit is based upon a patient and
family-centered model where the views of the patient and family
or friends figure predominantly in the care decisions. Since this
type of care emphasizes supportive services, such as pain control
and home care, rather than cure-oriented treatment, the hospice
benefit is exempt from those limitations on custodial care and personal
comfort items currently in force under the Basic Program. As a result,
a beneficiary who elects to receive care under a hospice program
cannot receive other Basic Program services/benefits (curative treatment
related to the terminal illness unless the hospice care has been formally
revoked
), except for beneficiaries under the age of
21, as detailed in Section 5.