Hospice & Palliative Care FAQ
What is hospice care and what is palliative care?
Hospice care is covered by Medicare, Medi-Cal, and most commercial insurance plans. For those patients who have Medicare or Medi-Cal, there are no out-of-pocket costs for hospice care.
For patients with commercial insurance, deductibles and co-pays vary based on the policy and the healthcare expenditures made year-to-date by the patient.
Hospice care is covered by Medicare, Medi-Cal, and most commercial insurance plans.
Medicare and Medi-Cal do not have co-pays or deductibles.
Commercial insurance may have co-pays or deductibles, depending on the specific policy and the healthcare expenditures made year-to-date.
Hospice care does not affect In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) benefits.
Hospice patients are not required to have a do-not-resuscitate (DNR) order or have any other advanced directives. If the patient and family wish to create advanced directives or a living will once on hospice care, our staff can assist in that effort.
Hospice care does not provide 24-hour home care.
While on home hospice care, families will typically experience someone from our company coming to the home 4-5 times per week, for about an hour.
In emergency situations, we do have the ability to place a nurse at bedside for an eight-hour continuous care shift, who may then be replaced by another shift nurse. This can continue until the situation is stabilized, at which point this level of services is discontinued.
We help with medical supplies, such as diapers, chucks, and gloves, but we do not guarantee that we will be able to provide all of the medical supplies your family will need.
Your primary care physician can absolutely be involved in your care, as long as they are amenable to following you on hospice and they are responsive to our team.
In most situations, you cannot continue to see your specialists while on hospice care.
For most of our patients, our goal is to take the family home, where we know they will be most comfortable. For some patients, going home with their family is not practical, and they choose to reside in a skilled nursing facility, assisted living facility, or board and care facility.