How to Find the Best Hospice Near You

The best hospice for your family is one that is Medicare-certified, scores well on CMS quality and family-survey measures, and answers your questions clearly. "Best" is partly personal, the right fit depends on your needs, but a few objective checks quickly separate strong providers from weak ones. Here is how to find them near you.

Step 1: Confirm Medicare certification

Start by making sure any hospice you consider is Medicare-certified. Certification means the agency meets federal standards and can bill the Medicare hospice benefit. It is also the gateway to public quality data. See how to verify a hospice is Medicare-certified.

Step 2: Use Medicare Care Compare

The federal Care Compare tool lets you look up hospices by location and review their published quality data. It is the single most useful free resource for comparing providers. Our walkthrough, how to use Medicare Care Compare for hospice, shows you exactly where to click. Two kinds of data matter most:

• Quality measures that reflect whether the hospice consistently does the right things, such as assessing pain and managing symptoms. See what hospice quality measures actually tell you.
• CAHPS family-survey scores, which capture how real families rated their experience, including whether they would recommend the hospice. See how to read hospice CAHPS family-survey scores.

Step 3: Weigh the family-survey scores carefully

The CAHPS survey asks bereaved families about communication, timeliness of help, respect, and emotional support. The summary measure of whether families would recommend the hospice is one of the most telling numbers. Look for consistently strong scores across categories, not just one high mark. Note that very small or very new hospices may not have enough surveys to be scored yet.

Step 4: Ask the right questions

Data tells you a lot, but a phone call or visit tells you the rest. Key questions include after-hours and weekend availability, how quickly a nurse responds to a crisis, which services and team members are provided, and how they handle acute symptom crises. Our full list lives in 20 questions to ask before choosing a hospice, and the broader process in how to choose a hospice provider: a 10-step guide.

Step 5: Watch for red flags

Be cautious of any hospice that pressures you to enroll, is vague about coverage or services, cannot explain its after-hours support, or has notably poor or missing quality data. Aggressive marketing and promises that sound too good are warning signs. See red flags: how to spot a low-quality hospice and hospice fraud warning signs families should know.

What "best" means for your specific situation

The objective checks above filter out weak providers, but the truly "best" hospice is the one whose strengths line up with your needs. Decide what to weight most heavily:

An agency that tops the scores overall can still be the wrong choice if it cannot meet your particular need — and a solid agency that fits your situation precisely may be the better "best."

The misconception: the closest or most advertised hospice is the best

Many families simply choose the hospice the hospital suggests, the one nearest home, or the one they see advertised. Convenience and visibility are not measures of quality. You are free to choose any Medicare-certified hospice that serves your area, and quality varies widely between agencies in the same town. A short comparison using Care Compare and a few phone calls can meaningfully change the care your loved one receives. You can also switch later; you may change your designated hospice once per benefit period with no penalty.

Don't overlook after-hours coverage and crisis access

Published scores and certification get you a strong shortlist, but two factors that rarely appear clearly in the public data often matter most in lived experience: who answers the phone at night, and how fast the hospice can manage a crisis. Ask each agency directly whether a triage nurse (not just an answering service) answers after hours, how quickly a nurse can physically reach your home at 2 a.m., and whether the staff who come are the agency's own employees or contractors. Then ask how they handle a symptom emergency — can they arrange short-term, intensive General Inpatient (GIP) care, and where? A hospice that rarely uses GIP may default to sending families to the emergency room, which is exactly what most hospice patients hope to avoid. Strong after-hours and crisis coverage is, for many families, the single best predictor of whether pain is controlled calmly at home or in a hospital hallway.

How our directory can help

This guide site lets you compare hospices near you using published data, or browse by state, for example Texas hospices. We explain how we evaluate providers in how we rank and rate hospices, so you can judge the information for yourself.

Frequently asked questions

Is the highest-rated hospice always the best choice for me?

Not necessarily. High scores are a strong starting signal, but the best fit depends on your situation — after-hours coverage for solo home caregiving, facility experience if your loved one is in a nursing home, or fast crisis access for unstable symptoms. Match strengths to your needs.

What if the hospital already picked a hospice for us?

You can accept it or choose another. A discharge planner's suggestion is just that — a suggestion. You have the right to pick any Medicare-certified hospice that serves your area, so ask for the full list and run your own quick comparison.

Why do some good hospices have no star rating or survey score?

Very new or very small agencies may not have enough completed CAHPS surveys to be publicly scored. That isn't automatically a strike against them, but it means you should lean harder on the phone interview and any complaint history.

Can I switch if the "best" choice turns out to be a poor fit?

Yes. You can change your designated hospice once per benefit period with no penalty, and switching does not interrupt your eligibility. The decision is important but not irreversible.

Your practical next step

Make a short list of two or three Medicare-certified hospices that serve your area, check each on Care Compare, and call them with the same set of questions. To get started now, compare hospices near you, then request a free hospice evaluation from your top choice. Remember, eligibility is a physician's judgment of a six-month-or-less prognosis if the illness runs its normal course; the evaluation is how you find out whether hospice is appropriate.