Life had not been kind to the Miami military veteran in his 50s. In and out of hospitals, he suffered from end-stage cirrhosis of the liver when he was referred to VITAS Innovative Hospice Care. Recognizing his situation, Kisha Malone, caseworker for VITAS’ Miami-Dade/Monroe program, took it upon herself to seek him out and help him complete the paperwork necessary for receiving the Medicaid and other benefits to which he was entitled. Finding him, however, was more of a challenge than she had expected.“The hospital had discharged him because he gave them a home address,” explains Malone, who has worked for VITAS for 22 years, 11 of those as a caseworker for the Miami-Dade program. “But it turned out that the address was a bar. The veteran was homeless; he lived out back near a dumpster.”
Malone didn’t give up. She drove around the poor neighborhood and “hung around” the bar until the man finally showed up.
“It was heart-wrenching. He was sunburned, dirty and so distrustful of a system and society that he felt had let him down,” she says. But he was impressed with Malone’s effort and agreed to let VITAS help.
“For so long he thought that nobody cared, nobody would do anything for him. But he said to me, ‘your company seems like they really want to help me,’” she says. Malone arranged to have him transported to a VITAS inpatient hospice unit for treatment. After he was approved for Medicaid, he was admitted to a nursing home. There he received care from both the nursing home staff and the VITAS hospice team.
“He was a veteran, he fought for our country, and helping him to die with dignity and compassion was the least I could do,” Malone said.
Helping people has motivated Malone throughout her VITAS career as she assists VITAS patients through the bureaucratic maze of Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance applications to ensure that they – and their families – can access the coverage for which they are eligible. For families already emotionally overwhelmed with caring for terminally ill loved ones, Malone’s assistance can be critical.
“In many cases people don’t have time to visit the Medicaid office or spend hours on the phone, and in other cases, they don’t even realize the patient might be eligible for coverage,” she says. “I enjoy such deep gratification from knowing I can ease some of their burdens and financial pressures.”
