A big area of confusion is the difference between hospice and palliative care. Palliative care is comfort care or symptom management care, and hospice is a specific type of palliative care. Palliative care can be provided for a person when he or she has a chronic condition that they’re going to live with for many, many years. Palliative care could be there in conjunction with the curative measures to make sure that the person is not uncomfortable, which means that palliative care will take care of the symptoms while the specialists will take care of the disease.
Hospice is a specific type of palliative care when we are now at the end of life, which means that hospice is a higher level of care because usually the needs are higher. Hospice is provided by a team of professionals in the home setting, wherever that may be. The services and the medications are delivered to the home. Hospice is covered through the Medicare program. Palliative care is not yet covered through the Medicare program. However, some private insurances do cover palliative care.