.png&w=256&q=75){kind=small}
Can You Stay on Home Dialysis with Hospice Care?
Date Updated: January 12, 2025
Written by:
Sarah has produced thousands of articles in diverse niches over her decade-long career as a full-time freelance writer. This includes substantial content in the fields of senior care and health care. She has experience writing about wide-ranging topics, such as types of care, care costs, funding options, state Medicaid programs and senior resources.
Reviewed by:
Dr. Brindusa Vanta is a health care professional, researcher, and an experienced medical writer (2000+ articles published online and several medical ebooks). She received her MD degree from “Iuliu Hatieganu” University of Medicine, Romania, and her HD diploma from OCHM – Toronto, Canada.
You can’t stay on home dialysis with hospice care in most circumstances. When you change to hospice care, you agree to receive end-of-life care instead of life-lengthening treatments for your primary diagnosis. Because dialysis classifies as a life-prolonging measure, you usually stop it when you start the hospice pathway.
Diverse Requirements for Hospice Care
Hospice providers set their own criteria for accepting new patients. Although some allow individuals to continue home dialysis treatments alongside comfort measures, others won’t start hospice plans until other medical treatments end. Moreover, Medicaid- and Medicare-certified hospice agencies must follow criteria set out by such assistance programs to receive funding on a patient’s behalf.
According to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, Medicare covers most hospice patients’ costs as of 2023. Eligibility criteria include a terminal diagnosis and an expected life duration of six months or less. To receive the Medicare hospice benefit, individuals must agree to stop other treatments outside of hospice care in relation to their terminal condition and associated issues. Similarly, where states cover hospice as an optional state Medicaid plan service, individuals must end curative treatments with respect to their terminal diagnosis.
Situations When Individuals Receive Dialysis Alongside Hospice Care
Hospice agencies set their own rules and eligibility requirements if they don’t rely on public funding. Additionally, the Veterans Administration allows dialysis to continue alongside VA-funded hospice care.
Furthermore, Medicare and Medicaid coverage of hospice only mandates the cessation of curative and life-lengthening measures for the main terminal diagnosis and related complaints. This coverage means that people who start hospice care for a life-limiting condition that’s unrelated to their kidney problems may continue dialysis. For example, someone might receive end-of-life care for terminal lung cancer but also have unassociated kidney disease. However, because of rigid rules, relatively few people receiving maintenance dialysis sign up for hospice compared to people with other conditions.