Ohio Code 3712.10 – Palliative care in inpatient facilities
(A) In addition to providing palliative care to hospice patients, a hospice care program may provide palliative care in an inpatient facility or unit operated by the program to patients who are not hospice patients, but only if the care is provided to each patient on a short-term basis and the care is medically necessary for the patient receiving the care.
Terms Used In Ohio Code 3712.10
- Hospice care program: means a coordinated program of home, outpatient, and inpatient care and services that is operated by a person or public agency and that provides the following care and services to hospice patients, including services as indicated below to hospice patients' families, through a medically directed interdisciplinary team, under interdisciplinary plans of care established pursuant to section 3712. See Ohio Code 3712.01
- Palliative care: means specialized care for a patient of any age who has been diagnosed with a serious or life-threatening illness that is provided at any stage of the illness by an interdisciplinary team working in consultation with other health care professionals, including those who may be seeking to cure the illness, and that aims to do all of the following:
(1) Relieve the symptoms, stress, and suffering resulting from the illness;
(2) Improve the quality of life of the patient and the patient's family;
(3) Address the patient's physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs;
(4) Facilitate patient autonomy, access to information, and medical decision making. See Ohio Code 3712.01
Notwithstanding any provision of this chapter describing a hospice care program as being authorized to provide care and services only to hospice patients, the provision of palliative care under this division is considered a component of the activities authorized by the hospice care program’s license.
(B) The director of health shall adopt rules governing the provision of palliative care under division (A) of this section to patients who are not hospice patients. The rules shall be adopted in accordance with Chapter 119 of the Revised Code.
(C) Nothing in this chapter precludes an entity that holds a license for a hospice care program, including a program that exercises the authority described in division (A) of this section, from owning, being owned by, or otherwise being affiliated with an entity that provides palliative care to patients who are not hospice patients.