Choosing a Hospice in the Philadelphia, PA Area
SavePhiladelphia's metro area is dense enough that most families have several Medicare-certified hospices to choose from, and the choice spans a real state line — an agency licensed in Pennsylvania cannot serve a patient who lives in Camden or Cherry Hill. This guide walks through reading Care Compare, CAHPS scores, and live-discharge data for the counties that actually overlap your address.
Last updated: July 2026
What Choosing a Hospice Means in a Metro That Crosses a State Line
Choosing a hospice in the Philadelphia area is complicated by a fact many families don't realize until they're mid-search: the region's hospitals, hospices, and patients sit across two states, and a hospice licensed only in Pennsylvania cannot enroll a patient whose home is in Camden County, New Jersey, or the reverse. The practical fix is to search by the specific home address, not the metro's name.
A discharge planner at a Philadelphia hospital may hand a family a list drawn mostly from Pennsylvania-licensed agencies even when the patient is going home to South Jersey, simply because that is the list the hospital keeps on file. Confirming licensure in the state where the patient actually lives is worth doing before comparing anything else.
Filtering Care Compare to the Counties That Actually Overlap Your Address
Care Compare lets a search be narrowed by ZIP code, which matters in a metro built from adjoining counties — Philadelphia, Bucks, Montgomery, Delaware, and Chester on the Pennsylvania side, Camden, Burlington, and Gloucester across the river — because a hospice's certified service area rarely lines up with a county boundary, let alone a media market 1Ref 1Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (2024).Find Healthcare Providers: Compare Care Near You (Hospice).Supports that CMS Care Compare is the official public tool for filtering and comparing Medicare-certified hospices by ZIP code across state lines..
Search from the home address first, then again from any hospital or nursing facility involved in the transition, since some agencies serve a facility's immediate area without covering the patient's actual home. The overlap between those two searches is the real candidate list.
Reading the CAHPS Family-Experience Score
The CAHPS Hospice Survey asks the family caregiver of someone who died on service to rate communication, symptom management, timeliness of visits, and whether they'd recommend the hospice, months after the death 2Ref 2Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (2024).CAHPS Hospice Survey.Supports the description of what the CAHPS Hospice Survey measures and how it samples caregivers of patients who have died.. In a metro with this many competing agencies, the domain scores are the fastest way to separate marketing from lived experience.
Look at the domain-level breakdown rather than a single star rating. An agency built around large hospital referral relationships can score well on communication with the medical team while scoring worse on the after-hours domain that determines what happens at 3 a.m., which is the domain most families actually remember.
Why the Live-Discharge Rate Deserves a Second Look
A hospice's live-discharge rate — how often patients leave the program alive rather than being cared for through death — is one signal of enrollment and care patterns. Problematic live discharges, ones followed quickly by a hospitalization or a hospital death, are documented as meaningfully more common at for-profit hospices than not-for-profit ones 3Ref 3Teno JM, Plotzke M, Christian T, Gozalo P (2015).Characteristics of Hospice Programs With Problematic Live Discharges.Supports that problematic live-discharge patterns are documented as more common at for-profit than not-for-profit hospices., and a national cohort study found burdensome transitions after live discharge are more likely with for-profit ownership and short stays 4Ref 4Peer-reviewed cohort study (see article) (2024).Hospice Readmission, Hospitalization, and Hospital Death Among Patients Discharged Alive from Hospice.Supports that burdensome transitions after a live discharge from hospice are more likely among for-profit agencies and short stays..
None of this means every live discharge is a problem; conditions genuinely stabilize sometimes. What's worth asking directly is how an agency talks about its live-discharge pattern when asked, since a defensive non-answer says more than the number itself.
Density Cuts Both Ways in a Referral-Heavy Market
Philadelphia's academic medical centers refer a high volume of patients to hospice each year, and that density means most families have real choice — several Medicare-certified agencies genuinely serving the same ZIP code — rather than the single default option common in a rural county. More choice only helps if it is used.
A discharge planner's list is a starting point, not a shortlist that has already been vetted for quality. Cross-referencing that list against Care Compare's CAHPS and live-discharge data for each name takes the comparison from agencies we know to agencies with the record we'd want for our own family.
What Ownership Type Shows in a Market This Competitive
Care Compare labels each hospice as for-profit or nonprofit, and national research has found family caregivers report worse experiences across every measured domain, on average, at for-profit hospices, and are less likely to say they'd recommend one 5Ref 5Anhang Price R, Parast L, Elliott MN, et al. (2023).Association of Hospice Profit Status With Family Caregivers' Reported Care Experiences.Supports that family caregivers report worse experiences across CAHPS domains at for-profit hospices and are less likely to recommend them.. In a metro with enough agencies to actually choose between, ownership is a reasonable early filter, not a disqualifier.
| Signal | Where to find it | What it suggests |
|---|---|---|
| CAHPS domain scores | Care Compare, per agency | Family-reported communication, symptom control, timeliness |
| Live-discharge pattern | Care Compare claims data | Enrollment and management practices |
| Ownership type | Care Compare listing | One input among several, not a verdict |
Nonprofit status alone does not guarantee a better experience, and some of the highest-rated agencies nationally are for-profit. The point is to weigh ownership alongside the CAHPS and live-discharge numbers for the specific agency under consideration, rather than either ignoring it or treating it as decisive on its own.
Where a Complaint Goes Depends on Which Side of the River You're On
A complaint about licensed conduct — a missed visit, an unreturned call, a clinical dispute — goes to a different state agency depending on where the hospice is licensed: Pennsylvania's Department of Health for agencies on that side, New Jersey's Department of Health for agencies serving South Jersey. Care Compare does not carry either record.
Knowing which state licensed the agency in question, before a problem happens, saves time later. It is also a fair question to ask an agency directly during intake: which state licenses them, and have they had any state licensing findings in recent years.
Common questions
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Say it back
How would you explain this to someone you love?
Two or three sentences, just as you’d say it. Gale reflects back what you focused on — a mirror, not a quiz.
When to Call the Hospice Nurse Line Instead of Waiting
- —Pain or agitation not controlled between scheduled visits
- —An on-call line that goes unanswered for hours during a crisis
- —A live discharge proposed without a clear clinical reason in writing
- —A sudden, unexplained change in the level of care being provided
If the on-call hospice nurse cannot be reached and the person is in acute distress, call 911 and tell the dispatcher hospice is involved, so responders know the goal is comfort rather than resuscitation unless a POLST states otherwise.
This article explains how to evaluate hospice agencies using public data; it is not medical advice and does not replace a conversation with the hospice team or the treating clinician.
References
- 1.Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (2024). Find Healthcare Providers: Compare Care Near You (Hospice). Medicare.gov / Care Compare (CMS). link ✓Supports that CMS Care Compare is the official public tool for filtering and comparing Medicare-certified hospices by ZIP code across state lines.
- 2.Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (2024). CAHPS Hospice Survey. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). link ✓Supports the description of what the CAHPS Hospice Survey measures and how it samples caregivers of patients who have died.
- 3.Teno JM, Plotzke M, Christian T, Gozalo P (2015). Characteristics of Hospice Programs With Problematic Live Discharges. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management. PMID 26004403Supports that problematic live-discharge patterns are documented as more common at for-profit than not-for-profit hospices.
- 4.Peer-reviewed cohort study (see article) (2024). Hospice Readmission, Hospitalization, and Hospital Death Among Patients Discharged Alive from Hospice. JAMA Network Open (PMC11099680). PMID 38753329 ✓Supports that burdensome transitions after a live discharge from hospice are more likely among for-profit agencies and short stays.
- 5.Anhang Price R, Parast L, Elliott MN, et al. (2023). Association of Hospice Profit Status With Family Caregivers' Reported Care Experiences. JAMA Internal Medicine. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2022.7076 ✓Supports that family caregivers report worse experiences across CAHPS domains at for-profit hospices and are less likely to recommend them.
5 sources, numbered by first appearance. General health information, not medical advice. AI-assisted editorial content — citations link their sources. Editorial policy