The programs we administer provide care to more than 70 million people in the United States. We are committed to ensuring that, at the end of life, they receive appropriate care tailored to their own needs and that they understand their rights and options. Medicare and most state Medicaid programs cover hospice services for terminally ill beneficiaries.
Hospices provide comfort, counseling and relief from pain, rather than curative care.
Hospice care brings important extra sensitivity, a focus on patient and family, and a special form of care to the dying. Medical, psychosocial, and spiritual needs are addressed by a specially qualified interdisciplinary team, with an emphasis on keeping the patient at home with family and friends as long as possible. The care provided includes traditional services, such as nursing care and drugs to control pain, as well as social services and homemaker assistance. And, at the discretion of each hospice and patient, it can include complementary treatments such as acupuncture and massage therapy. The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 made important changes to Medicare s hospice benefit.