Okla. Stat. tit. 63, § 63-1-860.2

As used in the Oklahoma Hospice Licensing Act:

1. "Board" means the State Board of Health;

2. "Department" means the State Department of Health;

3. "Hospice program" means a centrally administered, nonprofit

or profit, medically directed, nurse-coordinated program which

provides a continuum of home and inpatient care for the terminally

ill patient and the patient's family. A hospice program offers

palliative and supportive care to meet the special needs arising out

of the physical, emotional and spiritual stresses experienced during

the final stages of illness and during dying and bereavement. This

care is available twenty-four (24) hours a day, seven (7) days a

week, and is provided on the basis of need, regardless of ability to

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pay. "Class A" Hospice refers to Medicare certified hospices.

"Class B" refers to all other providers of hospice services;

4. "Hospice interdisciplinary team" or "hospice team" means a

unit composed of professionals and lay persons, as specified by the

Oklahoma Hospice Licensing Act, who provide hospice care;

5. "Hospice patient/family" means the hospice patient's

immediate kin, including a spouse, brother, sister, child, parent or

other persons with significant personal ties to the hospice patient,

who may be designated by members of the hospice patient/family;

6. "Hospice services" means those services furnished to a

patient by a hospice or by other persons, pursuant to arrangements

with such hospice, in a place of temporary or permanent residence

used as the home of the terminally ill patient for the purpose of

maintaining the patient at home. Should a patient require short-

term institutionalization, such hospice services shall be furnished

in cooperation with those contracted institutions or in a hospice

inpatient facility. Such services may include, but need not be

limited to, bereavement, palliative, personal care and such other

services as are provided by nurses, physicians, home health aides,

physical therapists, counselors, psychologists, social workers and

volunteers. Services provided by a hospital, nursing home or other

health care provider shall not constitute hospice services unless

such hospital, nursing home or other health care provider is

licensed as a hospice program;

7. "Medical advisor" means a physician licensed pursuant to the

laws of this state who is commissioned as a medical advisor by a

hospice for the purpose of providing ongoing palliative care as a

member of a hospice team;

8. "Palliative services" means the care or treatment given to a

patient by a hospice team for the reduction or abatement of pain and

other symptoms attendant to the patient’s condition;

9. "Patient" means a terminally ill person receiving hospice

services;

10. "Terminally ill" means a medical prognosis of limited life

expectancy of one (1) year or less at the time of referral to a

hospice of a person who is experiencing an illness for which

therapeutic strategies directed toward cure and control of the

illness alone, outside the context of symptom control, are no longer

appropriate;

11. "Bereavement" means the period of time following death

during which survivors mourn a death and process their grief;

12. "Bereavement services" means support services offered to a

family during the bereavement period;

13. " Hospice inpatient facility" means a facility of a licensed

hospice program, with twelve or fewer beds, in which only hospice

services are provided;

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14. "Personal care" means services provided to a patient in a

home to meet the physical requirements and to accommodate the

maintenance or supportive needs of a patient;

15. "Medically directed" means the delivery of medical care as

directed by a medical advisor;

16. "Hospice home services" means hospice services provided

primarily in the home of a patient;
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14. "Personal care" means services provided to a patient in a

home to meet the physical requirements and to accommodate the

maintenance or supportive needs of a patient;

15. "Medically directed" means the delivery of medical care as

directed by a medical advisor;

16. "Hospice home services" means hospice services provided

primarily in the home of a patient;

17. "Inpatient services" means hospice services provided to

patients who require twenty-four (24) hour supervision by a licensed

health care provider; and

18. "Health care provider" means a facility or institution

licensed by the laws of this state to provide on a regular basis

medical services, skilled nursing care, necessary dietary service,

hospice inpatient services or personal care. The term "health care

provider" includes, but is not limited to, hospice inpatient

facilities, hospitals, skilled nursing homes, intermediate care

facilities and residential care facilities.