What hospice is
Hospice is care for someone with a serious illness who is no longer trying to cure it. The focus shifts to comfort: pain control, easier breathing, calm, and time with family. A hospice team comes to wherever your mom lives. That can be her own house, a family member's home, an assisted living community, a board and care home or a nursing home.
The team usually includes a doctor, a nurse, a hospice aide, a social worker, a chaplain and volunteers. A nurse is on call day and night. After a death, hospice also offers grief support to the family.
Who qualifies
Under Medicare, a person qualifies when her doctor and the hospice doctor certify she is terminally ill, with a life expectancy of six months or less if the illness runs its normal course. She also agrees to comfort care instead of treatment to cure the illness.
Six months is an estimate, not a deadline. Medicare covers two 90 day benefit periods, then an unlimited number of 60 day periods, as long as she still qualifies. Some people get better and leave hospice. You can also stop hospice at any time.
What Medicare covers, and what it does not
- Covered: the hospice team, medical equipment like a hospital bed, supplies, and medicines for pain and symptoms.
- Small costs: up to $5 per prescription for symptom drugs, and up to 5% for inpatient respite care.
- Not covered: room and board. If your mom lives in assisted living or a board and care home, the family still pays the monthly rent and care fee.
Medi-Cal also has a hospice benefit, and most private plans cover hospice too. Veterans enrolled in VA health care can get hospice through the VA. See the details on Medicare's hospice page.
Can hospice come to an assisted living or board and care home?
Yes, in California it can, with one important rule. A licensed residential care home for the elderly needs a hospice care waiver from the California Department of Social Services before it can keep residents on hospice. The home also signs a written agreement with a licensed, Medicare certified hospice that spells out who does what.
Many Fresno and Clovis care homes already have this waiver. Some do not, and a home's waiver sets how many hospice residents it can have at once. If there is any chance your parent may need hospice, ask about it before move-in. It can spare her a hard move near the end of life.
Tell us what's going on. We'll text you licensed homes that fit, with real prices, and tour them with you.
Palliative care vs hospice
| Palliative care | Hospice | |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Comfort and symptom relief | Comfort at the end of life |
| Treatment to cure | Can continue | Stops for the terminal illness |
| Prognosis needed | No | Six months or less |
| Who pays | Usually regular insurance, with normal copays | Medicare hospice benefit, Medi-Cal, most plans |
Palliative care can start at any stage of a serious illness, even alongside chemo or dialysis. If your dad has heart failure, COPD or dementia and keeps landing in the hospital, ask his doctor about a palliative care referral.
How to pick a hospice in Fresno
Fresno has many Medicare certified hospices. They range from local nonprofits, like Hinds LifeCare (formerly Hinds Hospice), to national companies. You have the right to choose, even if the hospital hands you one name. Ask:
- How fast can a nurse come out after a call at night?
- How often will the nurse and aide visit each week?
- Do you already serve residents at the care home we are looking at?
- Do you offer respite and inpatient care if symptoms get hard to control?
- What grief support do you offer our family afterward?
You can also look up hospice quality scores on Medicare Care Compare.
How we help
We help families find licensed care homes where hospice is welcome. That often means a small board and care home with a few residents and more staff per person, which can feel calm and homelike near the end. Board and care in Fresno starts around $3,700 a month. For someone with dementia, a memory care home that allows hospice may fit better.
We check each home's CDSS inspection record and ask about hospice before we suggest it. If a discharge from Community Regional, Saint Agnes, Clovis Community or Kaiser Fresno is coming fast, see our hospital discharge guide and call or text us at (559) 550-4533, 8am to 8pm every day. Our help is free to families. The licensed homes we work with pay us a referral fee.
Updated September 2026 by Shaun and Nick, co-founders of CalValley Senior Living Advisors.