Palliative Care or Hospice…Is There a Difference?
They are two different yet similar kinds of care. Hospice is palliative care but palliative care is not hospice care. What do I mean? Both palliative care and hospice offer medical care to a person who is ill and both are done very compassionately, caring for the person who is ill as well as the family unit, offering physical comfort and care along with emotional care. Both are used in situations of chronic illness/disease; palliative care is used while treatments are still being administered and at any stage in the disease, with the hopes for a cure while hospice is used once treatments have ceased and no cure is to be found and in the last stages. Palliative care is ongoing with no time limit; hospice is focused on the last six months of life. I say “hospice is palliative care” but not vice versa because palliative care is the broad term for providing care for a terminal illness.
How do you know which to use? If a loved one is suffering a chronic illness, it can be very beneficial to use palliative care in conjunction with the care provided by their physicians. Palliative care is covered by Medicare, Medicaid and even some private insurance and provides services such as nursing care, home care and assistance, mobility aids, emotional support, or other services as described per the individual insurance policies. This kind of care can be while in the hospital or nursing home, and even in the home. Think of it as an additional level of care, not care in place of.
Hospice on the other hand is chosen during a period of the last 6 months of life, offering similar, organized services as palliative care offers. However, hospice is called when there is no cure and medical treatments are no longer effective and have been stopped. Medicare and Medicaid insurances cover hospice care while only some private insurance plans have hospice benefits. Hospice is in place of. Hospice provides for the emotional support and physical comfort and support as the patient transitions through to the end of their disease.