Patients with any terminal diagnosis are eligible for hospice, including but not limited to patients who have:
- Alzheimer’s Disease
- Cancer
- Cardiovascular Disease
- COPD
- Dementia
- Liver disease
- Lung disease
- Neurological Disease
- Renal Disease
- Stroke
The general eligibility criteria for hospice care are:
- The patient and family’s philosophy of care is to focus on comfort, rather than curative treatments.
- The patient has a prognosis of six months if the disease runs its normal course.
- The patient’s physician and the hospice medical director confirm the prognosis.
Hospice care can continue beyond six months if the patient continues to meet eligibility criteria.
Commercial insurance may have different eligibility criteria.
At the initial visit, our hospice will evaluate the patient’s clinical status, symptoms, laboratory results, Karnofsky score and other factors to determine if the patient is eligible.