If you have a terminal illness, hospice care may provide health and personal care services for you. Hospice also provides assistance to caregivers working in your home. Hospice staff will assess your health and provide additional care or services with regular visits. Hospice staff is on-call 24 hours a day, seven days a week and focuses on supportive care and pain relief during the last period of an individual’s life. Hospice care may also be provided in freestanding hospice centers, hospitals, nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.

What services are provided?

The hospice staff:

• manages the individual’s pain
• provides medical and personal care services to the individual
• assists family members to care for the individual;
• assists the individual and his/her family members with the emotional and psychosocial and spiritual aspects of dying
• provides needed drugs, medical supplies, and equipment
• arranges for additional services when needed - including respite care, speech and physical therapy, or inpatient care
• provides bereavement care and counseling to surviving family and friends.

Medicare may compensate you for hospice care if a physician certifies that the individual has less than six months to live if the disease runs its normal course. Medicaid may pay for hospice care in some states. Many private insurance plans, HMOs, and other managed care organizations will pay for hospice care. Individuals can pay privately for hospice care if they do not qualify for other funding.