How Long Will Medicare Pay for Hospice Care?

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Hospice care is a special kind of care that focuses on the quality of life for people and their caregivers who are experiencing an advanced, life-limiting illness. Hospice care provides compassionate care for people in the last phases of incurable disease so that they may live as fully and comfortably as possible.

Typically, hospice cares for individuals with a life expectancy of 6 months or less (if the illness runs its normal course). If you live longer than 6 months, you can still get hospice care, as long as the hospice medical director or other hospice doctor recertifies that you’re terminally ill.

• You can get hospice care for two 90-day benefit periods
• You have the right to change your hospice provider once during each benefit period.
• At the start of the first 90-day benefit period, your hospice doctor and your regular doctor (if you have one) must certify that you’re terminally ill (with a life expectancy of 6 months or less).
• At the start of each benefit period after the first 90-day period, the hospice medical director or other hospice doctor must recertify that you’re terminally ill, so you can continue to get hospice care.

If you’d like to refer a loved one for Columbus Hospice, click here or call 706-569-7992