What is Hospice Care?
Hospice care is not about giving up. It is about letting others step in to help you live each day to the fullest. Comfort care enables patients and their families to maintain their independence, improve quality of life and reduce unwanted hospital visits.
Responsive support begins with a plan of care based on your goals and values. The plan outlines how the hospice team will meet your needs and it's always adapting to changing situations.
Hospice Services
The foundations of hospice include nursing care with an emphasis on managing symptoms, practical assistance and emotional support. Caring for a loved one at home can be challenging. Our goal is to provide timely services to help your family make the most of your time together.
- Home medical equipment and personal supplies
- Around-the-clock access to care
- Management of complex pain and other symptoms
- Hospice aide for personal care and light homemaking
- Medical social services
- Spiritual care and support
- Physical, occupational, dietary and speech therapies
- Support from volunteers
- Short-term inpatient respite care (relief) for family caregivers
- Ongoing Grief counseling for the patient, family and friends
Medicare benefits cover four levels of hospice care; routine home care, continuous home care, general inpatient care and respite care.
The hospice team
At Compassus, a hospice doctor and hospice-trained registered nurse (RN) manage care. A hospice nurse will visit your home on a schedule agreed upon in the plan of care. An on-call nurse is available by phone 24/7 to address your needs.
The home hospice team includes:
- A doctor to manage pain and other symptoms
- A nurse for medical needs and help for caregivers
- Hospice aides to help with personal needs and tasks
- A chaplain for spiritual care
- Social workers to help with emotional and financial needs
- Volunteers for companionship or light errands
- Read more about your hospice team
Paying for hospice care
Comfort care is covered by Medicare, VA benefits, Medicaid and most private insurance companies. Hospice is a financial relief for many families because services such as medication, equipment and supplies, are covered by hospice benefits – with few or no out-of-pocket expenses.
- The Medicare hospice benefit and insurance questions.
Relief for family caregivers
Respite care helps family caregivers receive much-needed rest or time for important events. Medicare benefits pay for patient transport and up to five consecutive days of inpatient care at a Medicare-approved nursing facility or hospital. You can get respite care more than once, but only on an occasional basis.
Patients may require short-term continuous home care or general inpatient care as the need arises. A referral from your doctor is required for these services to be covered by Medicare or private insurance plans.
Grief counseling
The pain of loss can begin long before death. Hospice offers patients and their families emotional support from anticipatory grief, through the passing of a loved one and 13 months of follow-up counseling.