The Medicare Hospice Benefit, Explained

Hospice & Senior Care Finder · Published October 27, 2026

Medicare Part A covers hospice for people with an illness that can't be cured, when their doctors expect a life expectancy of 6 months or less if the illness runs its normal course. Hospice focuses on comfort, not on curing the illness. From a Medicare-approved hospice, your relative pays nothing for hospice care itself, apart from a few costs covered below. And choosing hospice isn't permanent. Your relative can stop at any time.

Who qualifies

Your relative needs Medicare Part A and must meet all three of these conditions:

• The hospice doctor and their regular doctor, if they have one, certify that they're terminally ill, with a life expectancy of 6 months or less if the illness runs its normal course.
• They accept comfort care (palliative care) instead of care to cure the illness and related conditions.
• They sign a statement choosing hospice care instead of other Medicare-covered treatments.

That signed document is the Hospice Election Statement, and it has to be completed before any hospice services start. Hospice isn't only for people with cancer.

Before deciding, your relative can have a one-time consultation with a hospice medical director or hospice doctor, even if they end up not choosing hospice. It's a chance to ask questions before anyone signs.

What hospice covers

The hospice team arranges the care. Covered services can include:

• Doctor services and nursing care
• Medical equipment, like wheelchairs or walkers, and medical supplies, like bandages and catheters
• Prescription drugs for pain and symptom control
• Hospice aide and homemaker services
• Therapy, social work services and dietary counseling
• Grief and loss counseling for your relative and the family
• Short-term inpatient care for pain and symptom management
• Short-term respite care

A hospice nurse and doctor are on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

What hospice doesn't cover

Once hospice starts, Medicare won't pay for treatment meant to cure the terminal illness and related conditions, or for care the hospice team didn't arrange. That includes hospital, emergency room or ambulance care for the terminal illness unless the hospice set it up. Room and board isn't covered either, whether your relative gets hospice at home or lives in a nursing home or a hospice inpatient facility.

Health problems that aren't part of the terminal illness are handled separately. Original Medicare still pays for covered care for those, and the usual deductibles and coinsurance apply.

If your relative has a Medicare Advantage plan, Original Medicare covers everything related to the terminal illness once hospice starts. They can stay in the plan for other care as long as they keep paying its premiums.

What you may pay

Hospice care from a Medicare-approved provider costs nothing, and there's no deductible. These costs can still come up:

• A copayment of up to $5 for each prescription for outpatient drugs for pain and symptom management.
• 5% of the Medicare-approved amount for inpatient respite care. That copayment can't be more than the inpatient deductible amount.
• Room and board, if your relative lives in a facility such as a nursing home and chooses hospice there.
• The monthly Part A and Part B premiums, which continue as before.

If your relative lives in a nursing home or assisted living, ask the facility what it will charge for room and board once hospice begins.

Where hospice care is given

Usually where your relative already lives. That can be their home, an assisted living facility or a nursing home. If certain conditions are met, hospice care can also be given in an inpatient hospice facility.

Federal payment rules (42 CFR 418.302) sort hospice care into four categories:

• Routine home care.
• Continuous home care, given only during brief periods of crisis and only as needed to keep the patient at home.
• Inpatient respite care. Medicare's hospice booklet says a respite stay can last up to 5 days each time, and can happen more than once, but only occasionally.
• General inpatient care, for pain control or symptom management that can't be handled in other settings.

How long hospice lasts

Medicare covers hospice in benefit periods: two 90-day periods, then an unlimited number of 60-day periods. After 6 months, care continues as long as the hospice medical director or hospice doctor recertifies that your relative is still terminally ill. Federal rules require a face-to-face visit with a hospice doctor or hospice nurse practitioner for anyone whose hospice stay is expected to reach the third benefit period, and again before each recertification after that.

Your relative's rights

They can change hospice provider once during each benefit period.

They can stop hospice care at any time. If they're still eligible, they can go back to hospice later. Stopping is a choice only your relative can make, and Medicare says no one should ask them to sign forms about stopping hospice if they didn't ask for them.

If the hospice decides your relative no longer qualifies and you disagree, you can appeal. The hospice should give a notice explaining the right to a fast (expedited) review by a BFCC-QIO. Keep that notice.

Medicare also warns never to accept perks or gifts for signing up for hospice. Hospice is only for people who are terminally ill.

Before you agree

A few questions are worth settling with the doctor and the hospice before your relative signs the election statement:

• Is this hospice Medicare-approved? Medicare covers hospice only from an approved provider.
• Which doctors are certifying the prognosis, and is your relative's regular doctor one of them?
• If your relative lives in a nursing home or assisted living, what will room and board cost once hospice starts?
• How will care for other health problems be handled, and by whom?

To find and compare Medicare-approved hospices near your relative, use Medicare's Care Compare tool. Hospice provider listings will be added to this site later. For now our directory covers nursing homes by state, and if your relative is deciding where to live, see our guide to nursing home vs. assisted living.