Full Definition

Hospice shifts the goal of care from cure to comfort. It is not a place — it is a care approach provided by an interdisciplinary team including physicians, nurses, social workers, chaplains, aides, and volunteers, delivered wherever the patient lives: at home, in assisted living, in a memory care community, in a skilled nursing facility, or in a dedicated inpatient hospice facility.

Medicare Part A covers hospice care through the Medicare Hospice Benefit, which provides nursing visits, all medications related to the terminal diagnosis, durable medical equipment, aide services, social work, chaplaincy, and bereavement support for the family after death. Patients must elect the hospice benefit, forgoing Medicare coverage for curative treatment of the terminal condition.

In Texas, research shows that many families who would benefit from hospice access it too late — often in the last days of life. Families should ask about hospice eligibility when curative treatments are no longer producing results.