{"id":98189,"date":"2025-12-29T00:47:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T00:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/98189\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T00:47:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T00:47:11","slug":"more-hospice-care-options-expand-into-pinellas-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/98189\/","title":{"rendered":"More Hospice Care Options Expand Into Pinellas County"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Linda Boyd\u2019s home is decorated to perfection.\u00a0From joyful Christmas decorations to meaningful mementos, everything has a place in her home.<\/p>\n<p>What You Need To Know<\/p>\n<p>Linda Boyd\u2019s husband, Mike, was told by doctors in 2024 there were no options left. They decided to use hospice care to make Mike comfortable in those last remaining days<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vitas.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">VITAS Healthcare<\/a> expanded into Pasco County a few years ago and into\u00a0Pinellas County at the end of 2025. Their goal is to\u00a0bring compassionate end-of-life care to families<br \/>\n<br \/>While hospice care is a covered Medicare benefit,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/researchinstituteforhomecare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024-Hospice-Care-Chartbook-FINAL.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">only 61% of eligible Floridians<\/a> use it<\/p>\n<p>Some of those decorations bring back memories, like a blanket with pictures across it.<\/p>\n<p>The pictures are of her and her late husband Mike, who died much sooner than anyone planned.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was in denial for the leaky valve, so he didn\u2019t want to get it fixed, unfortunately,\u201d said Boyd.<\/p>\n<p>In October 2024, he ended up in the hospital with congestive heart failure.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was in St. Joseph\u2019s for over two weeks, and they did everything that they could,\u201d said Boyd.<\/p>\n<p>The hospital connected Linda and Mike to hospice care, a benefit no one is really ready for but made all the difference.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think the thing that meant the most to me was the fact that I could get him home here because that\u2019s what he wanted,\u201d said Boyd.<\/p>\n<p>Mike was brought home on a Tuesday, and he was gone by Saturday.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/pinellas_hospice_care_pic_2.jpeg\" alt=\"An urn containing the ashes of Mike Boyd. (Spectrum News\/Erin Murray)\" class=\"hashed-image image\" img-data-alignment=\"center\" img-data-width=\"percent-seventy-five\" loading=\"lazy\" img-data-caption=\"An urn containing the ashes of Mike Boyd. (Spectrum News\/Erin Murray)\" img-data-wrap-text=\"true\" img-data-editing=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p>An urn containing the ashes of Mike Boyd. (Spectrum News\/Erin Murray)<\/p>\n<p>The hospice care benefited the Boyd\u2019s in a big way, but data from the Research Institute for Home Care shows close to 40% of people eligible for the hospice care benefit in Florida are not using it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the most common things we hear is, I wish I knew about this benefit sooner,\u201d said Kathleen Coronado, who is the vice president of VITAS Healthcare\u2019s operations in South Florida.<\/p>\n<p>Coronado said VITAS just recently began offering services in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vitas.com\/locations-search\/pinellas-county\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pinellas County<\/a>, after it was identified as having an underserved population.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHospice is a benefit covered by Medicare Part A, and it\u2019s covered at 100%,\u201d said Coronado.<\/p>\n<p>Linda did not have to pay a thing for all the care Mike was given by hospice care.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was totally covered. And like I said, I mean, they were amazing,\u201d said Boyd.<\/p>\n<p>Amazing in a time full of stress and heartbreak.<\/p>\n<p>While Linda works to keep living her life, she keeps Mike\u2019s memory with her always. She wears a necklace that is etched with a small print of his hand.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wanted his hand close to my heart,\u201d said Boyd. \u201cI wear it all the time. I\u2019ve got that and I\u2019ve got my cross and he\u2019s with me every day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/pinellas_hospice_care_pic_1.jpeg\" alt=\"Linda Boyd\u2019s necklace that is etched with a hand print of her late husband. (Spectrum News\/Erin Murray)\" class=\"hashed-image image\" img-data-alignment=\"center\" img-data-width=\"percent-seventy-five\" loading=\"lazy\" img-data-caption=\"Linda Boyd\u2019s necklace that is etched with a hand print of her late husband. (Spectrum News\/Erin Murray)\" img-data-wrap-text=\"true\" img-data-editing=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Linda Boyd\u2019s necklace that is etched with a hand print of her late husband. (Spectrum News\/Erin Murray)<\/p>\n<p>VITAS\u00a0Healthcare leaders say they are working to close the gaps in Pasco and Pinellas counties when it comes to hospice care coverage.<\/p>\n<p>They said they provide 24\/7 care, grief support and other specialized services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Linda Boyd\u2019s home is decorated to perfection.\u00a0From joyful Christmas decorations to meaningful mementos, everything&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[3948,6466,3075,571,6075,115,596,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,835],"class_list":["post-98189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-app-health","tag-app-latest-health-stories","tag-erin-murray","tag-health","tag-health-and-medicine","tag-news","tag-pinellas-county","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}