Hospice care for a Medicare beneficiary with a terminal illness is covered under:
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Answer & full 3-part explanation (select an option above, or peek)
Why A is correct
Medicare covers hospice care under Part A for beneficiaries with a terminal illness — certified as having a life expectancy of six months or less — who elect the hospice benefit. The benefit provides palliative and supportive care focused on comfort rather than cure: nursing services, medical social services, counseling, hospice aides, and pain management, with very low cost-sharing and little or no copayment for most services. Hospice is one of the Part A benefits enumerated in the senior health products objectives alongside inpatient care, home health, and skilled nursing facility care.
Why the other options are wrong
- B) Part B covers physician and outpatient medical services, not the hospice benefit package itself, so this option attaches the benefit to the wrong part.
- C) Medigap supplements Medicare cost-sharing; it does not independently provide the hospice benefit, so this option reverses the relationship between the programs.
- D) Hospice is a federal Medicare benefit; it is not limited to Medicaid, so this option wrongly confines it to the state program.
Memory hook
Hospice rides under Part A — the terminal-illness benefit that makes the end of life comfortable and affordable.