When a loved one is discharged from the hospital and told they need home health or hospice care, most families hear some version of the same sentence: “This is who we use.” A folder gets handed over with a name already filled in, and the assumption — for the family and often for the facility staff handing it over — is that the decision has already been made.
It hasn’t. Federal Medicare rules give patients and families the right to choose their own home health or hospice provider, not just the one a hospital, facility, or discharge planner defaults to. That right exists whether or not anyone mentions it to you.
Your Facility Doesn’t Get to Pick For You
Under Medicare’s Conditions of Participation for hospital discharge planning, facilities are required to tell patients about every qualified home health agency and hospice provider serving their area — not just the one they have a standing relationship with. A hospital isn’t allowed to limit that list to a single “preferred” agency, and if it has a financial relationship with a provider it refers patients to, that relationship is supposed to be disclosed.
In practice, this gets skipped more often than families realize. A discharge planner hands over paperwork already filled out with one agency’s name, and most people — exhausted, worried, and focused on getting a parent or spouse home — sign it without asking whether there’s another option. There almost always is, and the choice belongs to the patient and family, not the facility.
For a closer look at this right and how to exercise it, see our related article: Your Right to Choose Your Hospice, Home Health, and Palliative Care Provider in Tennessee.
Home Health or Hospice? They’re Not the Same Thing
Part of why families go along with whoever’s suggested is that home health and hospice sound similar and get used interchangeably. They serve very different purposes.
Home health care is for patients who are recovering. It brings skilled nursing, physical or occupational therapy, medication management, and health monitoring into the home so someone can heal from an illness, injury, or surgery without staying in a hospital or facility. The goal is recovery and a return to independence.
Hospice care is for patients with a life-limiting illness who have shifted the goal from curing to comfort. It focuses on pain and symptom management, emotional and spiritual support, and helping both the patient and their family through the end-of-life journey with dignity.
A patient can move between the two as their needs change. Figuring out which one actually fits — and who provides it well — is exactly the kind of decision that shouldn’t be made by default on someone else’s paperwork.
Why the Choice Is Worth Making Deliberately
Once you know you have a choice, the question becomes what to look for. A few things worth comparing between agencies:
- Medicare’s Care Compare quality ratings, which score agencies on patient outcomes, timeliness, and satisfaction
- Whether the agency is locally owned and staffed by people who live in your community
- How long the agency has actually served your area
- What patients and families say about their experience, not just what’s on the brochure
You don’t have to take an agency’s word for how it measures up — Care Compare scores are public, and they’re based on real patient outcomes rather than marketing copy. When you look us up, you’ll find a 5-Star hospice rating for 2025, a track record in this region going back to 1982, and a staff that mostly lives in the same towns they serve. That’s the kind of thing worth checking for whichever agency you’re considering, including us.
Remember: The Decision Is Yours
If a hospital or facility has already handed you a name, you can still ask for something different. That’s not just allowed — it’s your right, and it’s worth exercising even if no one brings it up first.
If you’d like to talk through home health or hospice care for yourself or a loved one, call us at 423-623-0233 or reach out through our website. There’s no obligation, and no wrong time to ask questions.
