Frequently Asked Questions

Navigating a life-limiting illness can be confusing, but you’re not alone. Below you’ll find answers to our most frequently asked questions about hospice care—from understanding how it works and when to consider it, to details on the comprehensive services we provide. Our goal is to help you make informed decisions with compassion and clarity. If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

What is hospice care?

Hospice focuses on caring, not curing, and in most cases care is provided in the patient’s home. Hospice care also is provided in freestanding hospice centers, hospitals, nursing homes, and other long-term care facilities. Hospice services are available to patients of any age, religion, race, or illness. Hospice care is covered under Medicare, Medicaid, most private insurance plans, HMOs, and other managed care organizations.

How does hospice care work?

Typically, a family member serves as the primary caregiver and, when appropriate, helps make decisions for the terminally ill individual. Members of the hospice staff make regular visits to assess the patient and provide additional care or other services. Hospice staff is on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Our hospice team develops a care plan that meets each patient’s individual needs for pain management and symptom control. The team usually consists of:

• The patient’s personal physician
• Hospice Physician (or medical director)
• Nurses
• Home Health Aides
• Social Workers
• Chaplain & Bereavement Coordinator
• Volunteer Coordinator and Trained Volunteers

What services are provided?

Among its major responsibilities, the interdisciplinary hospice team:
• Manages the patient’s pain and symptoms
• Assists the patient with the emotional, psychosocial, and spiritual aspects of dying
• Provides needed drugs, medical supplies, and equipment
• Coaches the family on how to care for the patient
• Makes short-term inpatient care available when pain or symptoms become too difficult to manage at home, or the caregiver needs respite time
• Provides bereavement care and counseling to surviving family and friends

When is the right time to ask about hospice?

Now is the best time to learn more about hospice and ask questions about what to expect from hospice services. Although end-of-life care may be difficult to discuss, it is best for family members to share their wishes long before it becomes a concern. This can greatly reduce stress when the time for hospice is needed. By having these discussions in advance, patients are not forced into uncomfortable situations. Instead, patients can make an educated decision that includes the advice and input of family members and loved ones.

How does hospice care begin?

Typically, hospice care starts as soon as a formal request or a “referral” is made by the patient’s doctor. Often a hospice program representative will make an effort to visit the patient within 48 hours of that referral, providing the visit meets the needs and schedule of the patient and family/primary caregiver. Usually, hospice care is ready to begin within a day or two of the referral. However, in urgent situations, hospice services may begin sooner.

Will I be the only hospice patient that the hospice staff serves?

Every hospice patient has access to a hospice registered nurse, social worker, home health aide, chaplain, and volunteer (also known as the interdisciplinary team). For each patient and family, the interdisciplinary team writes a care plan with the patient/family that is used to make sure the patient and family receive the care they need from the team. Typically, full-time registered nurses provide care to about a dozen different families. Social workers usually work with about twice the number of patients/families as nurses. If needed, home health aides, who provide personal care to the patient, will visit most frequently.

All visits, however, are based on the patient and family needs as described in the care plan and the condition of the patient during the course of illness. The frequency of volunteers and spiritual care is often dependent upon the family request and the availability of these services. Travel requirements and other factors may cause some variation in how many patients each hospice staff serves.

Does hospice provide 24-hour care?

How does the hospice work to keep the patient comfortable?

Many patients may have pain and other serious symptoms as illness progresses. Our hospice staff receives special training to care for all types of physical and emotional symptoms that cause pain, discomfort and distress. Because keeping the patient comfortable and pain-free is an important part of hospice care, many hospice programs have developed ways to measure how comfortable the patient is during the course of their stay in hospice. We work with physicians to make sure that medication, therapies, and procedures are designed to achieve the goals outlined in the patient’s care plan. The care plan is reviewed every 14 days to make sure any changes and new goals are in the plan.

Can I be cared for by hospice if I reside in a nursing facility or other type of long-term care facility?

Hospice services can be provided to a terminally ill person wherever they live. This means a patient living in a nursing facility or long-term care facility can receive specialized visits from hospice nurses, home health aides, chaplains, social workers, and volunteers, in addition to other care and services provided by the nursing facility. The hospice and the nursing home will have a written agreement in place in order for the hospice to serve residents of the facility.

Do state and federal reviewers inspect and evaluate hospices?

Yes. There are state licensure requirements that must be met by hospice programs in order for them to deliver care. In addition, hospices must comply with federal regulations in order to be approved for reimbursement under Medicare. Hospices must periodically undergo inspection to be sure they are meeting regulatory standards in order to maintain their license to operate and the certification that permits Medicare reimbursement.

How is hospice care paid for?