Best Hospice Care Services

Amedisys has been in operation since 1982 and has inpatient hospice locations and offers home hospice services. According to its website, it is a Medicare-approved hospice provider, and Medicare typically covers 100% of hospice costs with Amedisys.

Amedisys offers hospice care in 38 states, excluding Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Utah, Vermont, and Wyoming. It does not list a nationwide customer service line on the website, so you’ll need to use its website to search for individual locations and contact information.

In 2019, 42 Amedisys agencies received “SHPBest Awards” from Strategic Health Programs, one of the nation’s largest hospice benchmark associations. Ten Amedisys hospice centers were awarded the SHP “Premier Performer” award for ranking in the top 5% for quality and patient satisfaction. Amedisys also outperforms the national average in several Medicare Hospice Item Set (HIS) measures, including high marks for their intake assessment and for patients receiving a visit from a licensed healthcare professional within the last three days of life.

The Amedisys hospice care team includes a medical director, nurse, hospice aide, social worker, chaplain, bereavement counselor, and volunteers. Services and professionals utilized depend on your loved one’s individual needs.

Amedisys offers a specialized end-stage dementia program through its hospice services. Doctors and nurses in this program are specially trained in caring for those with dementia. Examples include providing activity lap pads to decrease agitation, special training for comforting baths and personal care, and training in non-verbal pain and behavior assessments.

Although VITAS Healthcare operates in only 14 states and the District of Columbia, the company had the largest market share of all hospice organizations in 2019, according to LexisNexis. In the same year, VITAS Healthcare had 4.5% of the national hospice market share. The company has been in operation since 1978 and employs over 9,600 professionals that care for more than 17,300 patients on a daily basis.

VITAS offers both at-home and inpatient hospice care. Its website lists a variety of services, both for hospice patients and their families. These include 24/7 telecare services through the organization’s Care Connection Center, which is staffed with licensed clinicians who can respond to around-the-clock requests for information and consultations.

It also offers respite care for caregivers, home medical equipment arrangements, and an “intensive comfort care” program where a hospice team member can remain in a person’s home for 24 continuous hours when a patient is experiencing a heightened level of health needs.

Other specialized programs VITAS Healthcare offers include specialized training in caring for those of the Jewish faith, music therapy, veterans care, and Paw Pals pet visits from hospice pet volunteers.

Several national organizations have recognized VITAS Healthcare for its use of technology in caring for patients—its mobile app won the “Best Social Impact” award at the 2019 Mobile User Experience Awards and “Best Technology-Enabled Process Improvement Project” at the 2018 Process Excellence Network Awards.

Compassus is a hospice service company based in Nashville, Tennessee, that opened its first hospice in 1979. It serves 30 states. Compassus is a Medicare- and Medicaid-approved hospice and also accepts private insurance plans. On its website, it also features information about how hospice benefits work with Medicare Advantage.

The company offers many patient support programs, like Life Review, in which volunteers help a hospice patient create a DVD or journal for families as a keepsake. It also offers a Veteran to Veteran program, where military veterans act as companions or visitors to a hospice patient, pet therapy (varies by location), and a Bereavement Program where volunteers place phone calls to friends or loved ones after the passing of a hospice patient to check in on them and their well-being.

We also liked its “Along the Final Journey” hospice guide for families, which features a hospice starter kit. These kits are very helpful for families starting hospice discussions with loved ones and other family members. It also offers virtual grief support groups and specialized support programs for adolescents and teenagers going through a loss.

The Compassus website is best navigated by putting in your ZIP code to obtain information on local branches. It’s tough to find information about services, payments, and other basic information on the national page of the site. It does have a toll-free referral phone line that's continuously staffed if you prefer to find your local branch in this manner.