What Are The Four Levels of Hospice Care?

Hospice is comfort care brought to every patient, whether in a private home, a nursing home, assisted living community, residential care facility for the elderly, or hospice house.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has defined four kinds, or “levels,” of hospice care. One patient may experience all four levels, perhaps in just a week or ten days of hospice services. Another patient may experience one level of care over several months of his or her hospice care. Each level of care meets specific needs, and every hospice patient is unique.

Every Medicare-certified hospice provider must provide these four levels of care: