Can Veterans Receive Medicare Hospice Care While Living at Home?
The short answer is yes. As long as a Veteran is enrolled in Medicare, along with any VA-related coverage they may have, they can receive hospice care at home.
Veterans who have Medicare, even if it is only Part A, are eligible for Medicare-paid hospice care at home when they become terminally ill.
A Veteran who is not enrolled in Medicare and uses only VA health care is limited to the use of VA outpatient and inpatient medical services, including hospice care.
VA at-home hospice services may be severely limited in some places, whereas Medicare at-home hospice services are widely available, so there’s no reason for any eligible Veteran to not have at least Part A.
Some VA hospital facilities have a hospice inpatient unit integrated into their services. Those that do not refer Veterans needing inpatient hospice care to community-based hospice providers, regardless of the Veteran’s Medicare status.
If the VA facility does have an "in-house” hospice unit for inpatients a Veteran can still receive care from a community-based hospice provider if they have Medicare. They would simply need to ask for that option from their VA doctor.
And if things get to the point where the veteran can no longer be cared for at home, they still have a choice. They are not automatically required to go into the VA in-patient hospice care unit if they have Medicare and think that better care if available in a community-based inpatient hospice facility.
There are as many reasons why a Veteran who is an inpatient might choose to stay within the facility as there are reasons why an inpatient Veteran might decide that they prefer community-based hospice care. It is important to do your research and ask questions before making any decision about where you want to receive care.
There are many issues that can affect a Veteran’s rights to health care under different circumstances, so it is a good idea for veterans and their families to begin asking direct questions about both hospice home-care and in-patient options before such care becomes a necessity.