Myths About Hospice Care

Fact: Hospice care provides psychosocial and spiritual care, along with pain management. Few people ever become addicted to opiates when used safely under a hospice physician’s guidance.

Fact: Hospice care is provided to people of all ages, from infancy to adulthood.

Fact: Hospice care can be provided any place you call home – your own home or a family member’s, a nursing home, an assisted living facility, an in-patient unit, or a VA hospital.

Fact: Fifty percent of hospice patients are diagnosed with conditions other than cancer or AIDS.

Fact: While Medicare guidelines require a patient to have a terminal prognosis of 6 months or less to be eligible for hospice, there is no fixed limit.

Fact: Bereavement services and grief support are available to family members for up to one year after the death of a patient.