Medicare 2026

Stopping, Restarting or Switching Hospice: How Medicare's Rules Work

Choosing hospice is a personal decision — and so is changing your mind. Medicare's hospice benefit is designed with that in mind. You can stop hospice, restart it later, or move to a different hospice provider, and the rules protect your right to do each of these things on your own timetable. Here is a plain-English walkthrough of how it works at the federal level.

How the hospice benefit is structured

Medicare's hospice benefit comes in blocks of time called benefit periods: two 90-day periods, followed by an unlimited number of 60-day periods. As long as the hospice medical director (or your doctor) recertifies that you still meet the eligibility rules, the benefit keeps renewing. During each benefit period, you have the right to change hospice providers one time.

Understanding these periods matters because several of your rights — stopping, switching, restarting — line up with them.

Stopping hospice: your right to revoke

You always have the right to stop hospice care, for any reason. People do this for different reasons — sometimes a condition improves or goes into remission, sometimes a patient wants to pursue curative treatment again, sometimes the fit just isn't right.

To stop, you (or your representative) sign a statement that includes the date hospice coverage will end. A few important protections:

• The form should not be signed when hospice starts, and no one on the hospice team should ask you to sign a "stop" form in advance or one you didn't request.
• The effective date on the form cannot be earlier than the day you actually sign it — you can't backdate a revocation.
• Revocation ends Medicare hospice coverage for the rest of that benefit period.

Once hospice ends, your regular Medicare coverage for the services you had set aside while in hospice resumes. That means Part A and Part B go back to covering care the way they did before you elected hospice.

Restarting hospice later

Stopping hospice doesn't use up your benefit. If you become eligible again, you can elect hospice at any time for any remaining benefit periods you have left. For example, if you stopped during your first 90-day period, you could later re-elect and move through the remaining periods as your condition and eligibility allow.

Switching to a different hospice (not the same as stopping)

If you want a different hospice provider — different staff, different approach, different location — that is a switch, not a revocation. You don't lose a benefit period, and your coverage doesn't stop.

To switch, you (or your representative) file a statement with both the hospice you're leaving and the hospice you're joining. The statement names each hospice and the date the change takes effect. You can do this once per benefit period.

If the hospice says you no longer qualify

To stay in hospice, a doctor has to certify that your life expectancy is six months or less if the illness runs its usual course. If your condition improves enough that you no longer meet that standard, the hospice may discharge you.

If you disagree with that decision, you have the right to ask for an expedited (fast) review by a Beneficiary and Family Centered Care Quality Improvement Organization — the BFCC-QIO. The hospice should give you a written notice explaining this right and how to request the review.

What happens with Medicare Advantage during hospice

If you had a Medicare Advantage Plan before electing hospice, you can stay enrolled in it and continue paying its premiums. Hospice services themselves are paid through Original Medicare while you're receiving them, but keeping your MA plan active matters: if you later leave hospice, your MA plan's coverage starts again on the first day of the following month, with no gap to arrange.

A note on broader coverage choices

Decisions about hospice sometimes come alongside larger questions about how you get your Medicare — Original Medicare (often paired with a Medigap policy and a stand-alone Part D plan) versus a Medicare Advantage plan that bundles coverage. Each path has trade-offs around provider choice, out-of-pocket structure, extra benefits, and paperwork. Neither is "better" in the abstract; the right fit depends on your health, preferences, and the plans available where you live.

A few program-level facts worth knowing as you think ahead:

• The Part D out-of-pocket cap is $2,100 in 2026 and $2,400 in 2027.
• In 2027, no Part D plan may charge a deductible higher than $700.
• The Part D base beneficiary premium for 2027 is $41.33 — a national figure used to calculate the late-enrollment penalty, not what any specific plan charges.
• Medicare's Annual Enrollment Period for 2027 coverage runs October 15 – December 7, 2026, with changes effective January 1, 2027.
• Social Security announced a 3.6% cost-of-living adjustment for benefits payable beginning January 2027.
• The 2027 Part B standard premium and deductible, and the 2027 IRMAA income brackets, have not yet been announced; CMS releases those figures in the fall, usually in November.

If you have Medicaid or qualify for Extra Help, you have a monthly Special Enrollment Period to move to Original Medicare with a stand-alone Part D plan — or to switch stand-alone Part D plans. Full-benefit dual-eligible individuals can also join an integrated Dual Eligible Special Needs Plan (D-SNP) in any month.

Where to go next

For official explanations of the hospice benefit, forms, and your appeal rights, visit Medicare.gov or call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227), available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. TTY users can call 1-877-486-2048. These are the authoritative sources for the current rules and any updated figures.

Hospice decisions are hard, but the rules are built to keep you in the driver's seat. Whether you're thinking about stopping, switching providers, or coming back to the benefit later, you have options — and the right to use them.