What is hospice?
Hospice is provided by mobile expert health care professionals, who have an expertise in symptom and pain management. Hospice care is no longer limited to institutional environments. It can be provided in your home, assisted living, nursing homes or health care facilities. Hospice provides a caring environment for the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of a person with a life limiting illness. It is often chosen for the final 6 months of life expectancy, but can vary.

In a hospice team there are medical directors, RN nurses, LPN nurses, medical social workers, social workers, chaplains, bereavement counselors, therapists, and trained volunteers. There are usually four different levels of care:

• Routine
• Inpatient
• Continuous
• Respite

Who pays for hospice and what are the costs involved?
Hospice is a Medicare benefit (also known as the Medicare Hospice Benefit) and is free with a zero deductible, for those who are eligible. In addition to Medicare, insurance companies often have hospice provisions written into their health packages, which would include some Medicaid recipients.

Hospice Volunteers
"The last good thing that may happen in a person's life...is a hospice volunteer."

HospiceWeb Links
A database list of U.S. Hospice Organizations

Hospice FAQ
Questions and Answers about Hospice

Tuesdays With Morrie Mitch Albom had that second chance. He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man's life. Knowing he was dying, Morrie visited with Mitch in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final "class": lessons in how to live. Tuesdays with Morrie is a magical chronicle of their time together, through which Mitch shares Morrie's lasting gift with the world.

Final Gifts In this moving and compassionate book, hospice nurses Maggie Callanan and Patricia Kelley share their intimate experiences with patients at the end of life, drawn from more than twenty years experience tending the terminally ill. Through their stories we come to appreciate the near-miraculous ways in which the dying communicate their needs, reveal their feelings, and even choreograph their own final moments; we also discover the gifts--of wisdom, faith, and love--that the dying leave for the living to share.     Dying Well Nobody should have to die in pain. Nobody should have to die alone. This is Ira Byock's dream, and he is dedicating his life to making it come true. "Dying Well" brings readers to the homes and bedsides of families with whom Dr. Byock has worked, telling stories of love and reconciliation in the face of tragedy, pain, and conflict National media publicity.

Morrie: In His Own Words Unlike many who discover they have an incurable illness and then withdraw from society, Morrie Schwartz remained open to new experiences, including interviews on Nightline, Talk of the Nation, and several other television and radio shows. In 1994 this former Brandeis University sociology professor was 75 years old when diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). Wanting to learn more about life and death, he objectively watched himself die.