The Medicare & Medicaid Center

If you know someone who is covered by Medicare and needs constant care and needs to enter a hospice facility, you will see that Medicare will be able to help with the expenses. However, it is important that you should first know the details on hospice care coverage in order for you to know what to expect and also know what Medicare can do.

Basically, if the person is under Medicare Part A, that person will be able to receive coverage for hospice care.

It is also important that the doctor or the attending physician as well as the hospice medical director should certify that the patient is already terminally ill and that they only have less than six months to live.

The care that the patient should receive should be under a Medicare-approved hospice program in order to get covered. Also, the beneficiary who is going to receive hospice care should sign a statement that they chose hospice care instead of the regular Medicare covered benefits for their terminal illness.

Under hospice care, Medicare will not be able to cover room and board if the patient is living in their home, or if the patient is receiving care in a nursing home or in a hospice residential facility. There are cases where room and board can be covered but it will often depend on the level of care and service provided to the patient.

Other covered services are doctor services, nursing care, medical supplies, drugs to control pain or to control symptoms, home health aide, speech therapy, occupational therapy, and even medical equipments, such as wheelchairs and walkers.

These are the things that you need to know about Medicare and hospice coverage. With it, the patient will be able to live comfortably and also with dignity despite his or her illness.