Omaha Senior AdvisorBy Omaha Senior Advisor Care Team · November 10, 2026
Medicare pays for four levels of hospice care: routine home care, continuous home care during a short crisis, inpatient respite of up to five days, and general inpatient care. Routine home care is nearly 99 percent of hospice days. Hospice is not round-the-clock caregiving at home, and families still pay for room and board. CMS lists 15 Medicare-certified hospices in the five-county Omaha area, 5 of them certified since 2022.
What does in-home hospice in Omaha actually include?
In-home hospice in Omaha is a Medicare benefit that brings a hospice team to wherever your parent lives, with the goal of comfort rather than cure. Medicare says hospice is usually given at home or in the place a person lives, such as an assisted living facility or nursing home. To qualify, a person must have Medicare Part A, the hospice doctor and the regular doctor (if there is one) must certify a terminal illness with a life expectancy of six months or less, and the person accepts comfort care instead of care to cure the illness.
Once your parent elects hospice, Medicare says the benefit should cover everything they need for the terminal illness under a plan of care the team writes with you. Care runs in two 90-day benefit periods, then an unlimited number of 60-day periods; after six months, the hospice doctor recertifies after a face-to-face visit. The plan covers visits from nurses and aides, medicines and equipment for comfort, and the help of a social worker and chaplain. If your parent is in a Nebraska assisted living building, state rules let a resident who needs complex nursing stay when the resident and the physician or nurse agree it is appropriate and a licensed hospice provides that care, so hospice does not by itself force a move. Our hospice care overview covers eligibility and payment in more detail.
What are the four levels of hospice care, and when does an Omaha family get each?
Medicare pays hospices for four levels of care, and the hospice team, not the family, decides which level fits on a given day. MedPAC's November 2025 payment summary describes them this way, with the FY 2026 base daily rates Medicare pays the hospice. Families do not pay these rates; they show how differently each level is staffed.
| Level of care | What it is | Where | FY 2026 Medicare base rate to the hospice |
|---|---|---|---|
| Routine home care | Scheduled visits; about 99 percent of all hospice days | Home, assisted living or nursing home | $231 a day (days 1-60), $182 (day 61 on) |
| Continuous home care | A short symptom crisis managed at home: 8 or more hours in a 24-hour day, at least half by a nurse | Where the patient lives | $1,674 a day ($69.76 an hour) |
| Inpatient respite care | A facility stay of up to five days to give a family caregiver a break | Hospice unit, hospital or nursing home the hospice contracts with | $532 a day |
| General inpatient care | Short-term care for symptoms that cannot be managed anywhere else | Hospice inpatient unit or hospital | $1,200 a day |
Source: MedPAC, Hospice Services Payment System, revised November 2025 (FY 2026 rates). In practice, almost every Omaha family on hospice is on routine home care. Continuous care and inpatient care are short and tied to a specific crisis, so ask each hospice how often it actually provides them and where its inpatient beds are.
What in-home hospice is not: is it 24-hour caregiving in an Omaha home?
No. In-home hospice is not round-the-clock caregiving; under routine home care, the hospice team visits on a schedule and a family member or a paid caregiver provides the day-to-day care in between. The American Cancer Society notes that home hospice programs keep a nurse available by phone at all times, and that the caregiver handles the rest of the daily care.
That gap surprises many families. Hospice aides help with bathing and personal care on visit days, and a nurse can come out after hours when symptoms change, but no one from the hospice stays the night on an ordinary day. Continuous home care, with eight or more hours a day mostly of nursing, is only for a short crisis. If no one in the family can be present overnight, the options are paying a home care agency for shifts, using inpatient respite for a few days, or moving your parent to assisted living or a nursing home where staff are present and hospice keeps visiting. Our in-home care page explains how private-duty caregivers fit alongside hospice, and hospice vs. palliative care covers the step before hospice.
What does Medicare leave Omaha hospice families to pay?
Medicare says you pay nothing for hospice care from a Medicare-approved provider, but a few costs remain: up to $5 per prescription for pain and symptom drugs, 5 percent of the Medicare-approved amount for inpatient respite, and room and board. Room and board is the largest. If your parent lives in an Omaha assisted living building or nursing home, the monthly charge continues while hospice visits, and Medicare does not cover room and board at home, in a nursing home or in a hospice inpatient facility.
Once hospice starts, Medicare also will not pay for treatment meant to cure the terminal illness, for care from a hospice provider the team did not arrange, or for emergency room, hospital or ambulance care related to the illness unless the hospice team arranges it. Call the hospice before calling 911 or heading to an emergency room, unless the problem is unrelated to the terminal illness. Your parent can change hospice providers once in each benefit period. Our guide to what Medicare pays covers the rest of the Medicare picture.
How do you choose among the hospices certified in the Omaha area?
CMS's provider data, which we pulled October 31, 2026, lists 15 Medicare-certified hospices based in Douglas, Sarpy, Cass, Saunders and Washington counties, out of 43 in Nebraska. Twelve are based in Omaha, with one each in La Vista, Bellevue and Wahoo. Ten are listed as for-profit and one, CHI Health at Home, as nonprofit; four certified since 2022 have no ownership type listed yet. Five have been certified since 2022, so a newer agency may have little track record to ask about.
Where a hospice is based does not limit where it serves, so ask each one whether it covers your parent's ZIP code. Then ask questions that test the gaps above: how often a nurse and an aide will visit each week, how quickly a nurse arrives after an evening or weekend call, whether it has ever provided continuous home care in your area and how it decides, where its inpatient and respite beds are, and whether it already works with your parent's assisted living or nursing home. Our home health and hospice directory lists each certified hospice with its address and phone.
Last verified: November 2026.
Frequently asked questions
What does in-home hospice in Omaha actually include?
In-home hospice in Omaha is a Medicare benefit that brings a hospice team to wherever your parent lives, with the goal of comfort rather than cure.
What are the four levels of hospice care, and when does an Omaha family get each?
Medicare pays hospices for four levels of care, and the hospice team, not the family, decides which level fits on a given day.
What in-home hospice is not: is it 24-hour caregiving in an Omaha home?
No. In-home hospice is not round-the-clock caregiving; under routine home care, the hospice team visits on a schedule and a family member or a paid caregiver provides the day-to-day care in between.
What does Medicare leave Omaha hospice families to pay?
Medicare says you pay nothing for hospice care from a Medicare-approved provider, but a few costs remain: up to $5 per prescription for pain and symptom drugs, 5 percent of the Medicare-approved amount for inpatient respite, and room and board.
How do you choose among the hospices certified in the Omaha area?
CMS's provider data, which we pulled October 31, 2026, lists 15 Medicare-certified hospices based in Douglas, Sarpy, Cass, Saunders and Washington counties, out of 43 in Nebraska.
