Hospice
Medicare-covered end-of-life care for a terminal illness with a six-month prognosis.
Definition
Medicare-covered end-of-life care for a terminal illness with a six-month prognosis.
Why it matters
Hospice is part of the Medicare vocabulary used across home health operations, documentation, and revenue cycle. Understanding it helps clinicians, QA leads, and administrators stay aligned on care quality and compliance.
What Should I Document? 100 OASIS Situations Home Health Nurses Face Every Day
100 real OASIS scenarios, worked end to end — clinical situation, common mistake, better approach, and key takeaway. Built around OASIS-E2 (effective April 1, 2026) to turn what you assess into accurate, defensible documentation.
Related terms
Listen While You Read
Conversations on medicare
Episodes from Inside Home Health that put Hospice in operational context.
Related Blogs
What Happens If My Home Health or Hospice Agency Fails a Survey?
A survey deficiency does not automatically mean closure. Learn what happens next, how corrective action works, and when survey problems can threaten Medicare participation.
HIPAA in Home Health & Hospice: Understanding the Basics & Privacy Rules
Understand how HIPAA applies when home health and hospice teams work in patients' homes, travel with devices, communicate with families, and rely on outside vendors.
Why Is Your Home Health or Hospice Agency Losing Referrals Before the Start of Care?
A referral is not an admission. Learn where referrals stall between intake and Start of Care—and how ownership, visibility, and follow-up can prevent avoidable losses.
Where Home Health Fits in the Care Continuum: A Nurse's Map
When a discharge planner says home health, most families hear help is coming. What they get is a skilled nurse working from day one toward making herself unnecessary. Kathy Duckett, RN, maps the American care continuum, and the one question that determines where a patient actually belongs.