What is palliative care?
Palliative care is specialized care for people living with a serious illness. The aim is comfort, clearer communication, and a better day-to-day life — for the person who is ill, and for the family around them.
It is not the same as hospice, and it is not a sign that treatment has failed. Palliative care can begin as early as a diagnosis. It can be offered at the same time as treatment meant to cure or control the illness. You do not have to stop that treatment to receive it.
This page is a plain-language guide, not medical advice. Decisions about care belong to you, the person who is ill if that is someone else, and the clinicians who know the situation.
Who it is for
Anyone with a serious illness can be a candidate, at any age. The illness does not have to be in a final stage. People seek palliative care for pain, breathlessness, nausea, fatigue, anxiety, and other hard symptoms, and also for help thinking through choices when the path ahead is uncertain.
Who provides it
A palliative care team is usually a group, not a single person. It may include doctors, nurses, social workers, chaplains or other spiritual care, and other specialists. The team works with the person’s own doctor rather than replacing that relationship.
In practice, programs live in different places. Some are based in a hospital or clinic. Some come to the home. Some are offered by a hospice agency as a service that is separate from the Medicare hospice benefit. The Texas license file used on this site does not say which licensed hospice or home health agencies run a palliative program, so you have to ask.
Where it is delivered
In-home palliative care, sometimes called palliative care at home, is common. Care can also be provided in a hospital, a clinic, a nursing home, or another place where the person lives. The right setting depends on the person’s needs and on what a local program actually offers.
How it is paid
Coverage varies. Private insurance often covers palliative care services, but the details depend on the plan. Medicare and Medicaid may pay for some kinds of palliative care. Medicare Part B, for example, pays for some medical services that help with symptoms. Veterans may have options through the Department of Veterans Affairs. Always ask the program, and your insurer, what will be billed and what you might owe.
This is different from the Medicare hospice benefit, which is a specific Part A benefit with its own rules. Seepalliative care vs. hospice.
A careful word about sources
The description above follows official consumer pages from theNational Institute on Agingand theNational Cancer Institute. TheCenter to Advance Palliative Careand its public sitegetpalliativecare.orgalso explain the idea in everyday language. We link those pages so you can read the originals. Nothing here is a substitute for a conversation with a clinician.