Home Health Agencies vs Hospice: How They Differ

Home Health Agencies bring skilled nursing, therapy, and aide support into the home, while hospice deliver comfort-focused end-of-life care wherever someone calls home. This comparison covers how the two settings differ, what CMS data reveals about each, and how to make a choice.

Setting	bring skilled nursing, therapy, and aide support into the home
Typical focus	Home Health Agencies centers on clinical and residential care needs.
What CMS publishes	Five-Star ratings for many providers, plus inspections, fines, staffing, and ownership.
Providers in this directory	12,460 Medicare-certified · avg CMS rating 3.2/5 among rated

What home health agencies are

Home health agencies bring skilled nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and aide services into the home. Medicare certifies the agencies that satisfy federal standards, and CMS publishes quality measures for each one.

What hospice are

Hospice programs deliver palliative, comfort-first care to people with a terminal illness, usually at home. Their services span nursing, aide support, counseling, and respite for family caregivers. Hospices certified by Medicare must satisfy federal conditions of participation.

How to choose

When you compare home health agencies, ask how soon care can begin after a hospital discharge, how visits are scheduled and supervised, and how the agency measures outcomes such as better mobility and fewer trips back to the hospital. To compare hospice programs, ask how on-call nursing works, how quickly the team responds, and what respite, bereavement, and coordination with the patient's physician look like.

A sensible first step is to line up the CMS Five-Star ratings, since they distill health inspections, staffing, and quality measures into one score. Treat a strong overall rating as a starting signal, then dig into the inspection findings and staffing numbers that produced it.

Where you can, visit each option in the United States, ask how care plans are created and revisited, and get costs, coverage, and availability confirmed in writing. Steady staffing and open communication with families count for as much as any published rating.

Browse providers

Home Health Agencies directory (12,460 providers) · Hospice directory (6,669 providers)

Frequently asked questions

How do home health agencies and hospice differ?

Home Health Agencies bring skilled nursing, therapy, and aide support into the home. Hospice deliver comfort-focused end-of-life care wherever someone calls home. The two meet different needs and fall under different Medicare conditions, so compare them by the level of care a person requires.

Are both home health agencies and hospice covered by Medicare?

Yes - both care types in this directory are Medicare-certified. Coverage rules, eligibility, and cost sharing vary by setting and situation. Confirm details with the provider and at Medicare.gov.

How do I choose between the two?

Begin with the person's medical needs. When you compare home health agencies, ask how soon care can begin after a hospital discharge, how visits are scheduled and supervised, and how the agency measures outcomes such as better mobility and fewer trips back to the hospital. To compare hospice programs, ask how on-call nursing works, how quickly the team responds, and what respite, bereavement, and coordination with the patient's physician look like.

Data sources

Source: CMS Provider Data Catalog. Processing date: 2026-10-06. This comparison is provided for information and is not medical advice.

Required disclosures

For general information only, not medical advice. This website shares public data and general information. It does not offer medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment guidance, and it cannot replace a consultation with a qualified health care professional or with Medicare.

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Confirm details before acting. Facility records come from public federal datasets and may lag or contain errors. Always verify current ratings, services, availability, and coverage directly with the provider and on Medicare.gov.

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