Comfort. Dignity. Quality of life. And — above all else — time. For patients whose disease can no longer be cured but whose remaining time can still be lived well. Same nurses. Same physicians. Same plan. In the place that already feels like home.
Not sure whether this is the right one? See hospice and palliative side by side →
End-of-life care focused on living the remaining time well. For patients whose disease can no longer be cured. Delivered in the home, by a coordinated team, with the same nurses and physicians visit after visit.
Pathways Hospice is a Medicare-certified hospice program, licensed in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania. The team includes a hospice-specific medical director, board-certified hospice clinicians, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, hospice aides, social workers, chaplains, and a trained volunteer corps. They come to your house. They communicate with your primary care physician. They are reachable twenty-four hours a day — not by an answering service, but by a clinician.
Most families know before the doctor says it out loud. The hospitalizations are coming more often. Treatments aren’t buying what they used to. The conversation is starting to shift from fixing to living with. Hospice is for that moment. Below are the common clinical pictures — not a checklist; eligibility is a judgment made by your physician and ours, together.
Class III or IV symptoms despite optimal therapy. Recurrent hospitalizations for fluid overload. Diuresis isn’t lasting as long — the water pills aren’t clearing fluid the way they used to. Each admission a little worse than the last.
Disabling dyspnea at rest. Continuous home oxygen. Cor pulmonale (strain on the heart from the lungs), recurrent infections, frequent ED visits. A patient who is exhausted by the ride to the hospital.
End-stage cancer for which curative therapy is no longer being pursued, or has stopped working. Patients may still be receiving palliative chemotherapy, radiation, or transfusions for symptom relief.
That’s late-stage: few words, no longer walking without help. Limited verbal communication. Dependent for all ADLs. Aspiration pneumonia, weight loss, recurrent UTIs, pressure injuries. Families exhausted by repeated hospital transfers.
ALS, Parkinson’s with severe complications, end-stage MS, advanced Huntington’s — with rapid functional decline and breathing or swallowing involvement.
Patients who’ve elected to stop or never start dialysis. Patients on dialysis whose other illnesses now drive the prognosis.
Not sure if hospice is right yet? That’s often the right time to talk — before a crisis forces the question. Our admissions nurse can do a no-pressure phone consult, and our team can do a home visit to assess fit. Call 800.939.1855, or ask your PCP to make a referral. We coordinate everything from there.
On admission, you’re assigned a hospice nurse case manager. Around that nurse, a coordinated team forms. They become familiar faces — not a parade of strangers. Visits are scheduled around your day; on-call is the rest of the time.
Board-certified hospice clinicians. Order writing, symptom management, in-home and telehealth visits, provider-to-provider communication with your PCP. The medical director is reachable twenty-four hours a day.
Your primary clinical contact. Visits typically twice a week or more, depending on need. Coordinates everything: medications, equipment, labs, the rest of the team, and communication with you and your PCP.
Bathing, dressing, light grooming, mouth care, mobility support. Usually scheduled multiple times a week. The aide and the family often become very close — this is one of the most appreciated parts of the team.
Coping, family dynamics, advance directives, community resources, financial-aid navigation, funeral planning when the family is ready. Here for the practical and the human.
Available regardless of faith tradition or whether you have one. Some families want extensive spiritual care; some want none; some find their way to it later. Always optional. Always offered without pressure.
Companionship for the patient and respite for the caregiver. A few hours on a schedule every week if you’d like. Volunteer program →
The pain crisis at 2 a.m. The family member who thinks the patient just stopped breathing. The first time the breathing changes. The hour after death itself. Hospice is not what happens during a scheduled Tuesday visit — hospice is what happens when something is happening, and you need a human voice that knows the patient.
One phone number. Our triage team picks up — a real clinician who can see the patient’s chart, not an answering service, not voicemail, not someone who calls back in an hour.
For pain control, breathing changes, agitation, a fall, a wound, or the start of active dying — an on-call nurse will come to the home. Same night. No emergency room. No ambulance ride.
In the final days, presence shifts. Nurses extend visits. Volunteers sit overnight. Aides come more often. The team makes sure no one is alone unless they want to be.
At the time of death, hospice handles the pronouncement, the call to the funeral home, the dignified handoff. Bereavement support for the family continues for up to thirteen months. A counselor calls. A condolence comes by mail. You are not dropped.
Hospice is the only kind of healthcare I can think of that doesn’t end when the patient does.
— From our team manual.
For most patients, Medicare or Medicaid covers the entire hospice benefit at no additional cost to the family. Most commercial plans include comparable coverage. We are Medicare-certified and handle authorization with your plan directly. Below is the full almanac of what’s included.
The list above is the entire benefit, end to end. We will tell you exactly what your specific plan covers before care starts.
What most families fear is that hospice means the medical part is now their job. It doesn’t. We are not replacing the family; we are wrapping a team around the family.
Yes. Your PCP remains your PCP. The hospice medical director coordinates with them; they remain the attending physician on record if they wish. We do not replace your primary care relationship.
For most patients, Medicare or Medicaid covers the entire Hospice Benefit at no cost to the family. Most private insurance plans include comparable hospice coverage. Pathways is Medicare-certified and works directly with your plan to handle authorization.
You can revoke hospice at any time, for any reason. If a patient’s condition improves or treatment goals change, patients can come off hospice and re-enroll later. This happens regularly. There is no penalty.
Yes. All scheduled visits happen wherever the patient lives — a single-family home, an apartment, an assisted-living suite, a family member’s spare bedroom. We bring the equipment, the medications, and the team.
Symptom management is the core clinical work of hospice. Our medical director and NPs are trained specifically in end-of-life symptom control — pain, dyspnea, nausea, agitation, terminal restlessness (a common, treatable agitation in the final days). We carry the medications and the protocols that handle these. The family is not expected to figure this out alone.
Same day in most cases. The referring physician sends an order; our admissions nurse calls to set up a visit; that nurse comes to the home, completes the assessment, signs the patient on, and care begins that evening or the next morning. There is no waiting list.
Call 800.939.1855 — a hospice clinician will answer, ask a few questions, and let you know what to do next. Or ask your physician (PCP, oncologist, cardiologist, hospitalist) to send a referral our way.
Hospice volunteers don’t perform medicine. They perform presence. A hand to hold. A reading from a worn book. A second cup of coffee at 3 a.m. so a caregiver can close her eyes. Required by Medicare, essential to families — and central to who Pathways is. If you’ve been thinking about it, we’d love to meet you.
See our volunteer program →Pathways runs three distinct services. They are not stages — they are different kinds of care for different moments. Many patients are with us for only one. For families whose needs change, the same physicians, nurses, and team carry across — without handoff.
Medicare-certified, intermittent skilled care after a hospital stay, surgery, or for managing a chronic condition. The goal is recovery and independence at home.
See Home Health →Physician-led symptom management and care planning for serious illness, alongside curative or active treatment. Patients are usually not eligible for hospice yet.
See Palliative →End-of-life care focused on comfort and presence. For patients whose disease can no longer be cured but whose remaining time can still be lived well at home.
We come to you. We stay with you. Whatever you need — and whatever comes next.
Prefer to refer online? Send the referral →
Whether you’re a physician unsure if it’s time, a hospital discharge planner with a patient who would benefit, a family member who’s been quietly thinking about it, or someone whose loved one was just told there’s nothing more curative to do — one call. A hospice clinician picks up, asks the right questions, and tells you exactly how this would work for this patient.
Hospice itself is licensed in Massachusetts, New Hampshire & Pennsylvania; palliative care in the same three states; home health across all six states. Nearby, or not sure? Call us anyway — we’ll help you find the right care.
See the coverage map →