By Sara Quam
The nationwide concern of hospice-care funding hits home for many area families.
Fund-raisers are one way that Luverne's hospice program can help make up for benefits missed by Medicare or health insurance.
The annual charity auction and banquet is scheduled for April 20 this year.
Sioux Valley Hospitals and Health System purchased Luverne's hospital, but Helen Saum, volunteer and marketing coordinator, wants to make it clear that donations don't go to Sioux Valley.
"Any donation, memorial or fund-raiser stays in the Luverne Healthcare Foundation to serve local people," Saum said.
The foundation's money has gone directly to patients whose services aren't covered otherwise, to patients who may need to stay in The Cottage and pay room and board and to patients who have high prescription drug costs. The foundation also pays for some supplies and additional services like counseling.
The charity auction usually draws about 300 people and includes a meal, entertainment, a live auction and a silent auction.
About 35 area people donate their time to the hospice program. Those volunteers, from Rushmore to Hills to Adrian, are valuable assets to the program, Saum said.
"If we have a patient from a particular area, it's nice to have a volunteer from there see that patient," Saum said.
The hospice program includes patients who aren't living in The Cottage. They can be at home, in nursing homes or hospitals and still receive hospice care.
In 1993, 30 people entered the hospice program. That number increased to 59 last year, and stays in The Cottage have risen even more steeply - from 5 in 1998 to 40 last year.
As the number of hospice users rise, the proportion of Medicare funding has fallen.
When Medicare set hospice payments in the 1980s, prescription drug costs represented about $1 of the per diem reimbursement rate. Now the prescription drugs cost about $16 a day.
The average length of service has also dropped. More patients enter hospice very late in their illnesses, requiring intensive services.
"By the time they get here, there's a high cost to their care, and we're not fully reimbursed," Saum said. "It's a nationwide concern, and Congress is starting to look at it."
The effort to balance effective care and rising costs is aided by local fund drives.