Hospice is comfort-focused care for a life-limiting illness, generally when a physician expects six months or less if the disease runs its normal course, and generally requires stepping back from curative treatment. Palliative care focuses on symptom relief and quality of life, and can run alongside curative treatment at any stage of an illness.
The distinction that matters
The most common misunderstanding is treating palliative care as simply an earlier or softer version of hospice -- it is not. A patient can receive palliative care while actively pursuing curative cancer treatment, for example, focused purely on managing pain and other symptoms alongside that treatment, with no requirement to stop treating the underlying illness.
Medicare's hospice benefit covers the hospice team, medications related to the terminal diagnosis, and equipment, but not room and board in a facility. Families can change hospice providers, and a patient can revoke hospice and return to curative treatment -- both options exist and are used more often than most families realize going in.
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