How To Qualify For Hospice

There are criteria that must be met to qualify for admission to a hospice program. In general, they are as follows:

Short Life Expectancy

• Your personal physician must provide certification that you have a life expectancy of less than six months if your health condition runs its normal course. The requirement for a six month life expectancy has never been defined -- particularly with respect to whether it applies to people who arguably qualify or whether there needs to be a virtual certainty.
• Doctors are not held liable for their estimates.
• If you do not have a personal physician, a hospice organization may be able to arrange for certification through the services of one of their doctors.

Statement from the patient

• Patients or their guardians are generally required to sign a statement indicating that:
• They understand the terminal nature of their illness and that hospice care basically focuses on controlling symptoms rather than curing disease.

Additional requirements of a particular hospice

• Hospice agencies may have their own additional admission requirements. For example, there may be a requirement that:
• • The patient live within a specified area, or
  • Have a caregiver team of family, friends or other volunteers to provide primary home care, or
  • That the patient not be in a physical condition that the hospice is not prepared to handle -- for instance, a patient on a feeding tube.