Medicaid and hospice, answered simply

Yes. Florida Medicaid covers hospice care for patients who meet the state's eligibility and medical criteria, and Treasure Coast Hospice accepts Medicaid as a community nonprofit provider. "Covered" means the hospice services related to your loved one's terminal illness — nursing visits, physician oversight, medications for comfort, equipment, and support for your family — are billed to Medicaid rather than paid out of pocket. Every family's plan and situation is a little different, so before care begins, we verify their coverage and walk you through exactly what applies. You don't have to figure any of this out alone.

The Medicaid hospice benefit is built to support the whole person, and the whole family. It typically includes:

• Regular visits from a hospice nurse to manage symptoms and comfort
• Physician oversight from our medical director, working alongside your loved one's own doctor
• Medications related to the terminal illness, focused on comfort rather than cure
• Medical equipment and supplies, like a hospital bed or wheelchair, delivered to wherever your loved one lives
• Aide support for bathing, dressing, and daily care
• Social work, chaplain visits, and grief support for your whole family

We'll confirm exactly what's included for your loved one's specific plan before care starts.

Often little or none — though it depends on your loved one's specific eligibility, their Medicaid plan's rules, and room-and-board rules if they live in a facility. That's exactly why we review coverage with you before care begins, so there are no surprises later. If cost still feels uncertain after that conversation, call us. We'd rather explain it twice than have you worry once.

Most Florida Medicaid recipients are enrolled in a Statewide Medicaid Managed Care (SMMC) plan rather than traditional Medicaid, and that's completely normal. Our admissions team verifies the specific plan, checks what authorization or coordination steps it requires, and handles that process directly with the plan rather than leaving it to you. One call gives us what we need to start sorting it out.

Eligibility has two parts. First, your loved one needs to be eligible for Florida Medicaid, whether through traditional Medicaid or a Medicaid managed care plan. Second, a physician needs to certify that they have a terminal illness with a prognosis of six months or less if the illness runs its normal course. That certification usually comes from two doctors — your loved one's own attending physician and our hospice medical director.

No — six months is where eligibility starts, not where care ends. Hospice benefits are commonly structured around certification periods, often an initial period followed by further periods for as long as your loved one remains eligible. If our medical director recertifies that the prognosis still applies, care simply continues. Plenty of families are surprised to learn this and worry about a clock running out. There isn't one. We'll always tell you honestly where things stand.

You can. Your loved one can choose to stop hospice care and return to curative treatment — our team will explain what that means for coverage before anything changes. If circumstances shift again later and your loved one meets the eligibility criteria, hospice care can begin again. Nothing about this process locks your family into a single path.

No — call first. You don't need Medicaid already confirmed, a diagnosis fully worked out, or a doctor's referral in hand to reach out to us. Our admissions team checks Medicaid eligibility as part of the process and helps you understand your options either way, even if hospice isn't the right fit yet. The call itself is simply a conversation, and it commits you to nothing.

It can, with conditions. For long-term-care Medicaid recipients who are eligible and living in a Medicaid-certified nursing facility, Medicaid may help cover room and board. That's different from Medicare hospice, which generally does not cover nursing home room and board. Eligibility and facility rules affect the answer, so we go through your loved one's specific situation with you before anything is decided.

As of 2026, common Florida long-term-care Medicaid limits include:

• Income limit: $2,982 per month for a single applicant
• Countable assets: $2,000 for a single applicant
• Home equity exemption: up to $752,000
• Community spouse resource allowance: up to $162,660 may be protected for a spouse who stays at home, along with a protected monthly income allowance that's updated periodically

These limits change and depend on your household's specific situation, so please call us, the Department of Children and Families (DCF), or the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) to verify the current numbers before making any decisions.

Florida is an income-cap state, which means even a small amount over the limit can affect eligibility on paper. A Qualified Income Trust, sometimes called a Miller Trust, may help some applicants qualify by directing income into a special account — but it has to be set up correctly, and the state makes the final eligibility decision, so this isn't a do-it-yourself fix. Florida's Medically Needy program is another path some families use when income is close to the limit. We can point you toward an elder law attorney or benefits counselor if that's the right next step.

Many hospice patients are dual-eligible for both. In that case, Medicare typically pays for the hospice services themselves — nursing visits, medications, equipment — while Medicaid can help with nursing facility room and board for residents who are eligible. Sorting out which program pays for what isn't something you should have to do — our team handles that billing coordination.