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End of life care planning terms

On Behalf of | Dec 3, 2021 | Estate Planning

End-of-life care, also known as palliative care, can improve the quality of life for individuals with serious or chronic illnesses and health conditions. It can be challenging to navigate treatment options for people with serious illnesses, and estate planning can make the process easier. Individuals can select palliative care professionals to help make the treatment process easier for themselves and their loved ones. If you’re a Texas resident, here are some estate planning tips you need to know when it comes to estate planning.

Why you should incorporate palliative care into estate planning

Palliative care and estate planning go hand in hand when it comes to creating a plan for end-of-life care and providing details for how the decedent would like their medical and financial affairs to be handled.

The individuals who offer palliative care are specially trained to do so and aren’t the same people who provide the patient with regular medical care services. The palliative care team should communicate with the rest of the individual’s medical team and loved ones to ensure the patient is cared for according to their wishes.

Pallative care and hospice care are not the same

It is important to realize that palliative care doesn’t mean the end of treatment. Palliative care is different from hospice care and doesn’t indicate that the patient has no chance of coverage. Curative treatments and palliative care go hand in hand. However, the patient’s spouse, child, parent, or sibling may be named in the estate planning process as the one who will handle the patient’s affairs while they are undergoing medical treatment.

Palliative care can start at any point during a patient’s illness which is why it’s important to have a will that is clearly written and expresses all the patient’s preferences for treatment.

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