Medicare cannot take your assets to pay for hospice care. Medicare is a federal health insurance program that does not have any legal authority to seize your home, bank accounts, or other assets for any medical services, including hospice care.

When you qualify for Medicare hospice care, Medicare covers all related costs including medical equipment, medications for symptom control, nursing care, and respite care for caregivers. To be eligible, your doctor must certify that you have a terminal illness with a prognosis of six months or less if the illness runs its normal course. You must also sign a statement choosing hospice care instead of other Medicare-covered treatments for your terminal illness.

The confusion about asset seizure often stems from mixing up Medicare with Medicaid. Medicaid, which is a joint federal and state program for low-income individuals, does have estate recovery provisions in certain states. These provisions allow states to recover costs from a deceased person’s estate for long-term care services, but this only applies to Medicaid, not Medicare.