MJHS Hospice Referrals
Ensure Comfort and Dignity for Your Patient With MJHS Hospice Care
Hospice is an interdisciplinary approach to caring for patients with an advanced illness. It improves quality of life, ensures proper pain management and offers psychosocial support for the patient and their family. Patients may receive hospice services if the referring physician and the hospice both certify that the patient has a prognosis of 6 months or less if the illness runs its expected course.
Our award-winning, not-for-profit hospice program offers compassionate, culturally sensitive care for patients who have made the decision to no longer pursue curative treatments and are nearing the end of life. We support patients and their families living in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Nassau County.
Services we can offer your patients include:
- Customized Plan of Care
- Support of Every Level of Hospice Care
- Supportive Programs
- Special Care Programs
Hospice Eligibility Criteria
Medicare Part A outlines the criteria for the hospice benefit, and most other insurers follow these guidelines as well. To be eligible to elect hospice care under Medicare, your patient must be:
(a) Entitled to Part A of Medicare; and
(b) Be certified as being terminally ill in accordance with §418.22
Admission to Hospice Care
Hospice can only admit a patient under the recommendation of the medical director in consultation with, or with input from, the patient’s attending physician (if any). In reaching a decision to certify that the patient is terminally ill, the hospice physician, instead of the hospice medical director, must consider at least the following information:
- Patient’s terminal diagnosis.
- Other health conditions, whether related or unrelated to the terminal condition.
- Current clinically relevant information supports all diagnoses.
How Can You Easily Assess Your Patient’s Eligibility?
Ask yourself the “Surprise Question” — Considering the patient’s condition:
“Would you be surprised if the patient were to die from his or her illness during the next year?”
If the answer to the “Surprise Question” is:
- YES – Continue the normal course of treatment.
- MAYBE – Call us for a peer-to-peer discussion with a hospice physician.
- NO – Ask yourself, “Is the care my patient needs consistent with hospice?”
If you’re unsure about a patient’s eligibility for hospice care, please call us at 212-420-3370. Once eligibility is confirmed, we encourage you to discuss hospice services with the patient and their family. If they’re ready to proceed, you can refer them directly through the same number. For those who may be uncertain, we can arrange an informational visit from a registered nurse at their home or care facility—just contact us, and we’ll take it from there.
General Inpatient (GIP) Hospice Eligibility Criteria
Patients in our hospice program may be eligible for GIP care when their symptoms and pain cannot be managed in the patient’s current residence. View a list of MJHS Hospice contracted facilities (PDF 130 KB).