Hospice is primarily a program of care delivered in a person’s home by a Medicare-approved hospice. Reasonable and necessary medical and support services for the management of a terminal illness are furnished under a plan-of-care established by the beneficiary’s attending physician and the Hospice team.
- Physician services
- Nursing care (intermittent with 24-hour on call)
- Medical appliances and supplies related to the terminal illness
- Drugs for symptom management and palliation of the terminal condition
- Short-term inpatient care for acute symptom management which may not be controlled in any other setting
- Short-term inpatient respite care (limited to five consecutive days per episode)
- Counseling services including dietary, bereavement, spiritual, and musical
- Therapy services required in the management of the patient’s terminal condition
- Therapies may include physical and occupational therapy, and speech and language pathology
- Ambulance services required for the proper palliation and symptom management of the patient’s terminal illness
- The Hospice team determines an inpatient level of care is required and due to the patient’s fragile condition ambulance transport is also required to carry out the needed palliative care
- Medical social services
- Aide and/or homemaker services
- Volunteer services
- Although the Hospice agency may arrange for some of the services to be provided by another individual or entity, the hospice agency remains the professional manager of the patient’s care