Center to Advance Palliative Care

The only requirement for physician hospice oversight services is for patients receiving benefits under the Medicare Hospice Benefit (MHB), in which very detailed requirements are spelled out as part of federal law/regulations. Outside of this, there is no requirement unless established as part of local institutional policy. My guess from your post is that patient care is funded by the state, outside the MHB. There are other options which you may or may not want to pursue to raise awareness for physician services, such as increasing public or other health professional advocacy pressure on hospital administration or your state government officials. You may also want to contact the NHPCO for advice. (www.nhpco.org)