VNS Health EasyCare: Hospice Care (at Home)
Treatment and support at home for those with advanced illness approaching end of life - when life expectancy is months, not years.
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How To Receive
Details on how to apply
Upon provider prognosis of a life expectancy of 6 months or less, determine the desire for hospice care.
Hospice care is not automatic, it must be elected.
There are support options for those who do not feel ready for hospice, including a hospice consultation visit.
If electing hospice, obtain a network provider qualification for hospice care.
Contact the VNS Health EasyCare Team at (866) 783-1444 (TTY 711) for prior authorization and guidance.
The qualifying provider will most likely assist with prior authorization.
Select a network hospice service: Click on the Ancillary Services tab on the page, then click on Hospice Care.
Note that VNS Health has a hospice care service.
Contact the hospice agency and schedule a consultation and intake/admission visit.
If the selected hospice care agency is sent the election directly, it will make first contact.
Schedule visit cadence and commence with hospice services.
Once enrolled in hospice, the hospice care provider will bill the health plan directly.
For those who haven't yet elected the hospice benefit and wish to learn more about it, the health plan also covers a one-time, no-cost hospice consultation for a terminally ill person (and their family). Likewise, for those who are eligible for hospice care but don’t feel ready, supportive services through the Palliative Care program are available (see Help with Certain Chronic Conditions benefit). Contact the VNS Health EasyCare Team for assistance.
*Note that this no-cost benefit is for home hospice care. Inpatient hospice care (delivered in a hospital) has a $400 per day maximum copayment.
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Hospice is comprehensive, compassionate care focused on providing physical relief and emotional support for individuals with advanced illnesses. Its main goals are to ensure comfort, enhance the quality of life, and preserve dignity and choice so that life can still be lived as fully and comfortably as possible as its end approaches. Hospice focuses on the relief of pain and disruptive symptoms while attending to emotional and spiritual needs. No curative treatment is sought for the terminal illness and no resuscitation is performed in the event of cardiopulmonary arrest. Hospice care prioritizes comfort and quality of life by reducing pain and suffering.
Hospice does not mean that all treatment is withdrawn. Medications for existing conditions are still administered, provided the recipient can take them, and medications for symptom management may even be added. Likewise, should an immediate illness or injury occur unrelated to the terminal illness, such as an infection or broken bone, it will be treated. Otherwise, exacerbations of the terminal illness will be managed with therapies and medications intended to deliver relief and comfort and not with aggressive efforts such as those performed in hospitals.
People are eligible for hospice care once their provider has determined that the remaining life expectancy is 6 months or less should the illness be allowed to run its normal course (i.e., without aggressive treatments).
Covered services include drugs for symptom control and pain relief, short-term respite care (for caregivers), and home care. The health plan will pay for hospice services and any Part A and Part B services related to the terminal prognosis, as well as continue to provide coverage for services not covered under Medicare Part A or B or not related to the terminal prognosis. If non-emergency, non-urgent services are needed that are covered under Medicare Part A or B and not related to the terminal prognosis, the cost for these services depends on the use of a network provider (i.e., in-network versus out-of-network cost-sharing).
If non-hospice care is required, that is care not related to the terminal prognosis, contact the health plan for authorization and arrangement.
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