How to Verify a Hospice Is Medicare-Certified

Look the hospice up on Medicare's Care Compare tool (medicare.gov/care-compare), then ask for its CMS Certification Number (CCN) and make sure that number opens the same hospice's profile. All currently active hospices are listed there, and each profile shows a Medicare certification date. If the hospice isn't listed or the details don't match, call your state survey agency or 1-800-MEDICARE before you sign anything. This matters because Medicare only covers hospice care from a Medicare-approved provider.

Why certification is non-negotiable

A certified hospice has been found to meet the federal Conditions of Participation and must be surveyed at least once every 36 months by a state or local survey agency or an approved accrediting organization. If an agency is not certified, Medicare will not pay for its hospice services, and those federal conditions don't bind it. Certification doesn't guarantee quality: you still need the family-survey scores and your own questions. But it is the minimum bar for any hospice billing Medicare. See does Medicare cover hospice care for what the benefit includes once you've confirmed certification.

How to check

You can complete the whole check in a few minutes, even under time pressure.

1. Search Care Compare. At medicare.gov/care-compare, choose Hospice care and enter your location, plus the agency's name if you have it. Open the profile and look under Details for the "Medicare certification date." See how to use Medicare Care Compare for hospice.
2. Ask for the CCN and test it. Every certified hospice has a CMS Certification Number, and a legitimate agency will share it readily. Type medicare.gov/care-compare/details/hospice/ followed by the number. A CCN on Care Compare opens that hospice's profile; one it doesn't recognize sends you back to the Care Compare start page. Check that the name and address match what the agency told you.
3. Ask a person if anything looks off. Medicare's own advice is to ask your doctor, the hospice, your state hospice organization, or your state health department; 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227; TTY 1-877-486-2048) can give you the state hospice organization's number. CMS also publishes a directory of State Survey Agencies, and federal rules require the state or local survey agency to run a toll-free hotline that answers questions about Medicare-participating hospices. If you have a Medicare Advantage Plan, your plan must help you locate a Medicare-approved hospice.
4. Check CMS's oversight records if you want more. On CMS's Quality, Certification and Oversight Reports site (QCOR, at qcor.cms.gov), the hospice search takes a name or CCN and can look for active, new, or terminated providers.
5. Use this directory as a shortcut. Our listings come from CMS's Care Compare data, and each hospice's page here shows its CCN and a link to its official Medicare profile, so you can compare hospices near you and click through to confirm. Our copy isn't live, so treat Medicare's page as the final word.

What if the hospice isn't on Care Compare?

Don't assume the worst, but don't sign yet. All currently active hospices should be listed, so a missing listing is a reason to stop and check. The agency may be recently certified or renamed, or you may be searching a mismatched location. Be more careful if you hear "we're brand new" or "our Medicare number is pending": since May 13, 2026, a CMS moratorium has barred new hospice enrollments nationwide unless the application was received before that date. It runs in six-month periods that CMS can extend, so ask your state survey agency whether it still applies. Try other spellings and the agency's legal name, then ask for the CCN and test it. Care Compare also isn't live: each profile shows a "Data last updated" date, and CMS refreshes its hospice data quarterly. If it still doesn't match up, call your state survey agency before going further.

What is a CCN, and what should it look like?

A CCN is the unique number Medicare assigns to each certified hospice, and it has six characters. The first two stand for the state. The last four identify the type of facility, and CMS reserves 1500 through 1799 for hospices, so 451515 fits the pattern. Many newer numbers start with a letter, such as B51500. That is normal: CMS said it would move to letter-and-number state codes once the two-digit ones ran out. So far these appear only for California and Texas hospices, so a letter-first number from another state is worth a question. Every hospice in Care Compare's August 2026 data has a number in the hospice range, so a number outside it is also worth a question, though not proof of a problem: CMS's QCOR survey list has a handful of exceptions.

The CCN is the key that links an agency to its official record: ownership, location, certification date, and published quality data all tie back to it. Matching it guards against a subtle problem: an agency using a similar name to a well-regarded provider, a marketer claiming an affiliation that doesn't exist, or a brand name shared by several separately numbered hospices, each with its own record. Asking for the CCN takes a minute and removes that doubt.

Certification, licensure, and accreditation are three different things

Families routinely blur these terms. They are not interchangeable, and only one makes Medicare payment possible.

Status	Who grants it	Required?	What it means for you
Medicare certification	CMS (federal), after a survey by a state agency or approved accreditor	Required to bill Medicare	Medicare can cover the care; federal Conditions of Participation and surveys apply
State licensure	State health department	Required where state or local law licenses hospices	Permission to operate locally, not the same as Medicare payment
Accreditation	The Joint Commission, ACHC, CHAP	Voluntary	An optional outside review; it can be a route to certification, but does not by itself make a hospice certified

Always confirm certification first. Learn more in hospice accreditation: what to look for and hospice fraud warning signs.

Certification is the start, not the finish

Confirming certification tells you the agency clears the federal floor and that Medicare can pay for its hospice services. It does not tell you whether nurses respond quickly at night, whether the team can manage a crisis at home, or what other families experienced. For that, move to the star rating, the family-survey scores, and the quality measures, and ask the after-hours and crisis-care questions directly. Think of verification as opening the door; the quality review is what you do once you're inside.

When verification gets complicated

A few situations deserve extra care. If a hospice was very recently certified, it may appear in Medicare's listings with little or no published quality data; that is normal and not a red flag by itself. See newly certified hospices. If an agency recently changed ownership or merged, its name may differ from the one tied to the CCN, so match on address and CCN rather than the brand on the brochure. The same CCN can also show a different name or address on QCOR than on Care Compare. And if you are being approached by a marketer rather than a clinician, especially one offering gifts, groceries, or cash to enroll, stop and verify independently before sharing any Medicare information, because inducements to enroll are a recognized fraud pattern, not a normal practice. Medicare's own advice is never to accept perks or gifts for signing up for hospice, and not to share your Medicare Number with someone offering free services.

The misconception, corrected

Some families assume any agency calling itself a "hospice" is automatically Medicare-certified, or conflate certification with accreditation. Neither assumption is safe. The word in a name proves nothing, and a private or uncertified service may not meet federal standards or be covered by Medicare. Certification (federal, and mandatory if Medicare is to pay) is different from accreditation (voluntary, from bodies like The Joint Commission). Always confirm certification first: it protects both your coverage and your loved one. Failure to provide a CCN, or pressure to sign before you can verify, is a warning sign worth taking seriously; see hospice fraud warning signs.

Frequently asked questions

Where exactly do I find the CCN?

Ask the agency directly; a legitimate hospice shares it without hesitation. It is also the last part of the hospice's Care Compare web address (medicare.gov/care-compare/details/hospice/ and then the number), and it appears on each hospice's page in this directory.

Is "Medicare-approved" the same as "Medicare-certified"?

For a family's purposes, yes. Medicare's coverage pages say "Medicare-approved," while Care Compare describes "Medicare-certified hospices" and shows a "Medicare certification date." Both point to a hospice Medicare can pay.

Does Medicare certification mean the hospice is high quality?

No. Certification only means the agency clears the mandatory federal floor and can bill Medicare. Quality is a separate judgment you make from family-survey scores, quality measures, references, and your own questions about after-hours and crisis coverage.

What if the hospice is licensed but not Medicare-certified?

Then Medicare will not pay for its hospice services, and the federal Conditions of Participation don't bind it. For most families relying on the Medicare Hospice Benefit, certification is essential, so confirm it before signing anything.

Is an accredited hospice automatically certified?

Not necessarily. Accreditation is voluntary, and accreditors can also offer it outside their Medicare approval. It counts toward Medicare only through a CMS-approved program with deemed status. Verify certification separately rather than assuming accreditation covers it.

Can a hospice lose its certification, and how would I know?

Yes. Medicare can end a hospice's provider agreement. QCOR's hospice search has a "Terminated Providers" option, and CMS posts enforcement actions such as involuntary terminations from surveys conducted on or after October 1, 2022. Because Care Compare updates on a schedule, call your state survey agency if you need to know about a very recent change.

Can I see a hospice's inspection reports?

Yes. QCOR's "Hospice 2567s" report can be searched by CCN and includes surveys by accreditors as well as state agencies. By default it lists only surveys that cited deficiencies, so set the Deficiencies filter to "All" to see every survey. Your state survey agency's hotline can also answer questions about a hospice's most recent survey.

Does certification cover every branch of a hospice?

Each location must be approved by Medicare, and licensed where state law requires it, before it furnishes Medicare-reimbursed services. If you are dealing with a branch office, ask whether that location is approved and when. CMS's moratorium also bars adding new branches, satellite offices, or other practice locations to an existing enrollment while it is in effect, so a newly opened branch deserves a direct question.

Questions to ask the hospice during verification

• What is your CMS Certification Number, and what name and address are tied to it?
• Are you Medicare-certified, or only state-licensed? (Certification is what lets Medicare pay; a state license alone doesn't.)
• When were you certified, and when was your most recent state or accreditor survey?
• Are you accredited by The Joint Commission, ACHC, or CHAP, and if so, can you share that status?
• Will you put your covered services and after-hours coverage in writing before I sign?

Practical next steps

• Look the agency up on Care Compare before signing anything.
• Ask for the CCN and test it; treat reluctance as a red flag.
• Check QCOR or call your state survey agency for certification and survey history.
• Then assess quality: certification is step one in how to choose a hospice provider.

Bottom line: confirm Medicare certification first, via Care Compare and the CCN. It is what makes Medicare coverage possible and brings federal oversight. Then move on to family-survey scores and your own questions to judge quality.