What is hospice care?

Hospice care provides compassionate comfort care for patients with a terminal illness who have a life expectancy of six months or less. Rather than focusing on curing the illness, hospice focuses on managing pain, providing emotional support, and enhancing quality of life. Hospice care can be provided in the patient's home, a hospice facility, nursing home, or hospital.

What services does hospice provide?

Hospice provides pain and symptom management, nursing care and physician services, medical equipment and supplies, prescription medications related to the terminal diagnosis, counseling and spiritual support, respite care for family caregivers, and bereavement support for the family.

Does Medicare cover hospice care?

Yes, Medicare Part A covers hospice care with little to no out-of-pocket costs. Medicare covers all services related to the terminal illness, including medications, medical equipment, and respite care. The patient may have a small copay for prescription drugs and respite care.

Find Hospices Near You

Search 4,915 Hospices across the United States

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The National Landscape

Understanding Hospices across the United States

4,915

Hospices Nationwide

Data from CMS Hospice Compare (Dataset 252m-zfp9), updated quarterly.

Understanding Hospices

What Hospice Actually Provides

Medical care: Doctor, nurse visits, medications for comfort, medical equipment (hospital bed, oxygen, wheelchair)
Pain management: Aggressive symptom control—the goal is comfort, not suffering
Support team: Social worker, chaplain, trained volunteers, bereavement counselors
Respite care: Up to 5 days of inpatient care so family caregivers can rest

Common Misconceptions

"Hospice means giving up": It means choosing quality of life. You can leave hospice if you improve or want to try treatment.
"Hospice is a place": 70%+ of hospice care happens at home. It's a type of care, not a location.
"Six months to live": This is an estimate for eligibility, not a prediction. Many people live longer.
"It's only for cancer": Hospice serves heart failure, dementia, COPD, kidney disease, and other conditions.

Hospice vs. Palliative Care

Palliative care: Comfort-focused care at ANY stage of illness. Can continue curative treatment. Available in hospitals, clinics, home.
Hospice: A type of palliative care for terminal illness when curative treatment has stopped. Fully covered by Medicare.
The overlap: Both focus on quality of life. Palliative care can transition to hospice when appropriate.

Choosing a Hospice Provider

Crisis response time: "How quickly can a nurse come if there's an emergency at 2am?" Best hospices guarantee a nurse visit within 1-2 hours, 24/7.

Quality measures to check: CMS tracks "visits in last days of life" (more is better), pain screening rates, and family satisfaction scores.

Ask about the care team: Who is the hospice physician? How often will the nurse visit? Is there a dedicated social worker for your family?

Bereavement support: Medicare requires hospices to offer 13 months of bereavement support to families. Ask what this looks like.