Terminal illness and hospice care: what HB 46 made possible

HB 46 added patients with a terminal illness and patients receiving hospice or palliative care. Those are independent bases: a palliative care patient qualifies whether or not anyone has used the word terminal, and a terminal diagnosis qualifies before hospice enrollment.

TCUP participation doesn’t affect hospice eligibility or benefits. The prescription sits in the state registry alongside the hospice medication plan, not inside it, so tell the hospice team: they coordinate comfort medications daily and will fold it into the plan. Texas hospice organizations have grown familiar with the program since HB 46.

Same-day telehealth appointments exist, registry entry is frequently same-day, and dispensaries offer same-day pickup (verified by the patient’s name and date of birth) plus statewide delivery. Realistically, a family that starts in the morning can have product within a day or two. If speed is the priority, say so when booking; clinics triage.

Nearly, and one request during the visit decides how much. Family can book, join the video visit, order, and receive delivery, and if the physician enters a family member as a caregiver on the CURT record, that person can sign for deliveries and collect pickup orders on their own. Ask for it while you have the physician on the call; it is not something the dispensary can add for you. The patient is the person evaluated and named in the registry. For patients too ill to sit through a standard video visit, tell the clinic when booking; physicians adapt the format case by case.

Dispose of it rather than keep it. The program’s possession protection runs to the patient, and a caregiver designation covers collecting and delivering medicine to them, not holding it afterward. Hospice teams deal with medication disposal routinely and are the right people to ask how to do it.

It depends on the facility, and home hospice and inpatient units often answer differently. A patient on home hospice keeps the prescription at home, managed by the family with the hospice team informed. Inpatient facilities set their own policies and some won’t allow it on site, so ask before a transfer rather than on the day of one.

That is the family’s decision, but the numbers are smaller than most people fear. Texas charges no state fee and issues no card. The services we compare cost $45 to $199 as a single payment, product is paid per order, and no annual renewal is required by law. Insurance, Medicare, and the hospice benefit don’t cover it. goodblend’s 20% financial hardship discount applies to patients on SSDI, SSI, SNAP, or WIC.

Yes. The program has no minimum age, and terminal illness or hospice and palliative care qualify a child on the same terms as an adult. A parent or legal guardian books the visit, joins it, and handles every order; for a patient under 18, goodblend requires the caregiver on the record to be the legal guardian.