Does Medicare Pay For Hospice Care

Hospice care

If you have Medicare Part A (Health Insurance) and meet all of these conditions, you can get hospice care:

Your hospice doctor and your regular doctor (if you have one) certify that you’re terminally ill (with a life expectancy of 6 months or less).
You accept palliative care (for comfort) instead of care to cure your illness.
You sign a statement choosing hospice care instead of other Medicare-covered benefits to treat your terminal illness and related conditions.

Your costs in Original Medicare

You pay nothing for Hospice care.
You may need to pay a Co-payment of no more than $5 for each prescription drug and other similar products for pain relief and symptom control while you’re at home. In the rare case your drug isn’t covered by the hospice benefit, your hospice provider should contact your Medicare drug plan to see if it’s covered under Part D.
You may need to pay 5% of the Medicare Approved Amount for inpatient respite care.
Medicare doesn’t cover room and board when you get hospice care in your home or another facility where you live (like a nursing home).

Note:

To find out how much your test, item, or service will cost, talk to your doctor or health care provider. The specific amount you’ll owe may depend on several things, like:

Services Available Through Medicare

Depending on your terminal illness and related conditions, the plan of care your hospice team creates can include any or all of these services:

Doctor services
Nursing care
Medical equipment, like wheelchairs or walkers
Medical supplies, like bandages or catheters
Prescription drugs for symptom control or pain relief
Hospice aide and homemaker services
Physical therapy services
Occupational therapy services
Speech-language pathology services
Social work services
Dietary counseling
Grief and loss counseling for you and your family
Short-term inpatient care for pain and symptom management
Short term Respite Care. If your usual caregiver (like a family member) needs a rest, you can get inpatient respite care in a Medicare-approved facility (like a hospice inpatient facility, hospital, or nursing home). Your hospice provider will arrange this for you. You can stay up to 5 days each time you get respite care. You can get respite care more than once, but it can only be provided on an occasional basis.
Any other Medicare-covered services needed to manage your pain and other symptoms related to your terminal illness and related conditions, as recommended by your hospice team

Things to know

Only your hospice doctor and your regular doctor (if you have one) can certify that you’re terminally ill and have a life expectancy of 6 months or less. After 6 months, you can continue to get hospice care as long as the hospice medical director or hospice doctor re-certifies (at a face-to-face meeting) that you’re terminally ill. Hospice Care is usually given in your home but may also be covered in a hospice inpatient facility. Original Medicare will still pay for covered benefits for any health problems that aren’t part of your terminal illness and related conditions, but this is unusual. When you choose hospice care, you decide you no longer want care to cure your terminal illness and/or your doctor determines that efforts to cure your illness aren’t working. Once you choose hospice care, your hospice benefit will usually cover everything you need.

Medicare won’t cover any of these once your hospice benefit starts:

Treatment intended to cure your terminal illness and/or related conditions. Talk with your doctor if you’re thinking about getting treatment to cure your illness. As a hospice patient, you always have the right to stop hospice care at any time.
Prescription drugs to cure your illness (rather than for symptom control or pain relief).
Care from any hospice provider that wasn’t set up by the hospice medical team. You must get hospice care from the hospice provider you chose. All care that you get for your terminal illness must be given by or arranged by the hospice team. You can’t get the same type of hospice care from a different hospice, unless you change your hospice provider. However, you can still see your regular doctor or nurse practitioner if you’ve chosen him or her to be the attending medical professional who helps supervise your hospice care.
Room and board. Medicare doesn’t cover room and board if you get hospice care in your home or if you live in a nursing home or a hospice inpatient facility. If the hospice team determines that you need short-term inpatient or respite care services that they arrange, Medicare will cover your stay in the facility. You may have to pay a small co-payment for the respite stay.
Care you get as a hospital outpatient (like in an emergency room), care you get as a hospital inpatient, or ambulance transportation, unless it’s either arranged by your hospice team or is unrelated to your terminal illness and related conditions.

Contact your hospice team before you get any of these services or you might have to pay the entire cost.

New Medicare & Medicaid Cards:

The Mеdісаrе Hospice Cаrе Beneficiary Idеntіfіеr: Thе Centers for Mеdісаrе аnd Medicaid Sеrvісеѕ (CMS) rесеntlу рrоvіdеd rеvіѕеd identity cards tо Medicare patients with a ѕресіаl Mеdісаrе Bеnеfісіаrу Identifier (MBI), аn 11-сhаrасtеr mіx оf lеttеrѕ and numbеrѕ.

Hospice services use this number anytime a patient is accepted into service.

The Medicare Beneficiary Identifier, identified as the Medicare number of the applicant, is seen on the Medicare Insurance Card page.

All recipients were supposed to get their new Medicare card by April 2019.

Unlеѕѕ уоu hаvе аlrеаdу obtained the nеw раѕѕроrt, CMS advises thаt you dеstroy thе оld саrd and uѕe the nеw оnе.

Some Information About You Medicare & MBI Number:

Have your current card ready for any health care provider or insurance. Be it a regular doctor’s appointment or a hospice admission trip.
Handle and secure the new card like a credit card or driver’s license/state I.D.
Share the latest MBI only with insurance companies, trusted relatives, and doctors offices

See the CMS tab that describes the change from HICN to MBI for more detail on the MBIs or current Medicare cards. To read more about the value of the Medicare Hospice, check out our guide.

The Medicare Advantage

Medicare Hospice provides end-of-life treatment relevant to the illness of a patient in whichever location the patient considers home. This can be their family home, assisted living, or a nursing home or wherever hospice exists; Medicare Portion A protects all terminal-related programs up to a hundred percent.

When the patient needs a higher level of care, such as 24/7 supportive care or inpatient hospice care, Medicare Part A covers this, often with no extra cost to the individual or family.

Advantages of Medicare Hospice Care:

The following benefits are provided by Medicare Hospice:

A group of interdisciplinary hospice practitioners
Health care equipment at home
Drugs
Respite care
Long-term care
Emergency treatment
Standard Home Care
Grief Counseling