Hospice care in Duarte, California

Hospice focuses on comfort and quality of life. Under the Medicare hospice benefit, patients choose comfort care instead of treatment intended to cure their terminal illness and related conditions. Some treatments used to relieve symptoms may still be considered. The hospice team and treating clinicians can explain what is appropriate, available, and covered for the individual patient.

That is a general description of how the benefit works, not advice about anyone’s care, and not a promise that Hospice of Grace provides a particular treatment. Whether a particular treatment can continue alongside hospice, and how it would be paid for, depends on the treatment, the illness, and the coverage involved. Those questions belong with the patient’s oncologist and the hospice medical director, who can answer them for that specific situation.

The official Medicare page on hospice coverage is the reference to read before that conversation, and it is linked at the foot of this page.

City of Hope is a major cancer center in this city, and many residents and their families rely on it. That is part of the local picture rather than a statement about our organization: many people here are living with cancer and are seen by oncologists close to home.

If a patient is being treated there, the oncologist remains the oncology physician. Hospice care is coordinated with the treating clinicians at the family’s request, in the same way it is for any specialist. If coordination does not happen, ask either team why.

Which treatments would stop, and which would continue? Who will write the prescriptions after the transition, and where are they filled? How will the oncologist and the hospice medical director reach each other? If the person is enrolled in a clinical trial, does the trial allow hospice, and who decides?

None of these questions need to be answered in one conversation, but each one has a real answer, and both teams should be able to give it in plain language.

Call (818) 351-5250 and say that you are in Duarte. Tell us who the patient is, what has changed recently, and who the primary physician is. Our team can help confirm availability for your location and care needs. If an evaluation seems appropriate, our team can explain what it involves and how it can be arranged.

Hospice eligibility depends on an individual clinical assessment by a physician, not on a diagnosis or a city. Our eligibility guide explains what clinicians typically look for, and our coverage guide explains what Medicare, Medi-Cal, and private insurance usually pay for.