Hospice Care in Farmington Hills, MI
Written and reviewed by the Lily Hospice clinical team.
Farmington Hills has one of the heaviest concentrations of senior housing in Oakland County. Independent living, assisted living, memory care, senior apartments and skilled nursing line Orchard Lake Road, Twelve Mile, Fourteen Mile, Middlebelt and Grand River. So the most common question from Farmington Hills families is not “Can hospice come to the house?” It is “Mom is already in a facility. How does hospice fit with what they do?”
This page answers that first. Lily Hospice is family-owned and based in Troy, about 25 to 30 minutes east on I-696.
Hospice inside assisted living, memory care or a nursing facility
The facility keeps doing what it does: meals, housekeeping, medication administration, help with dressing, activities. Hospice adds a layer the facility does not provide: a hospice nurse who manages pain and symptoms and adjusts the plan as the illness progresses, a hospice aide for extra bathing and personal care, a social worker for the family, a chaplain, volunteers, and bereavement support afterward. Hospice also pays for medications, equipment and supplies related to the terminal illness.
The two teams coordinate. Our nurse writes orders the facility’s nurses carry out between our visits. When something changes at 3 a.m., the facility calls (248) 955-5100 and a real person at Lily answers, not an answering service. Your mother does not move. Her room, her routine and the aides she knows stay the same.
Medicare hospice does not pay the facility’s room and board. That remains whatever arrangement you already have.
Hospice in a Farmington Hills home
Plenty of families here are still in the house. Farmington Hills is a city of ranches and colonials from the 1960s through the 1980s on good-sized lots off Thirteen Mile, Halsted, Drake and Inkster, plus condos along Northwestern Highway. Hospice at home follows the same pattern, except our team is the only team: scheduled nurse and aide visits, social work, chaplain, volunteers, equipment delivered to the house, and the 24/7 line. In a ranch, most living is on one floor. In a two-story colonial, we talk through where a hospital bed goes so your father is not isolated upstairs.
Faith, food and family at the end of life
Farmington Hills is home to large Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Chaldean and Christian communities, and to families who want the end of life to honor specific traditions: who is present, what prayers are said, how the body is cared for, what is eaten, what happens on the Sabbath or during Ramadan. We ask about them on the first visit rather than discovering them at the last one. Our chaplain works alongside your own clergy, not instead of them.
Who qualifies, and the option before hospice
Medicare hospice requires a physician to certify a prognosis of six months or less if the illness runs its normal course, and the patient to elect comfort-focused care instead of treatment intended to cure the terminal illness. That is the whole test, and hospice can be revoked at any time.
If your mother is still in treatment at Corewell Health Farmington Hills Hospital on Grand River, the Karmanos Cancer Institute location in Farmington Hills or Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital, the
Pathways Palliative Program manages symptoms alongside that treatment. It is billed as Medicare Part B visits, so the six-month certification does not apply. See the Pathways Palliative Program.
Starting hospice from Farmington Hills
Call (248) 955-5100. If your father is in a facility, we also talk with its nurse or director. We contact his physician, arrange the certification, and schedule an admission visit, usually within a day. If he is in the hospital, tell the discharge planner you want Lily; Medicare gives you the right to choose.
What Medicare pays
Medicare Part A pays Lily directly. The benefit covers the hospice team, medications for pain and symptom control related to the terminal illness, equipment and supplies, short-term inpatient care, respite and bereavement support. You may owe up to $5 per prescription for symptom-control drugs and 5% of the Medicare-approved amount for inpatient respite. Medicaid and most private plans mirror the benefit. Benefit periods run two 90-day periods, then unlimited 60-day periods, each recertified. The four levels of care: routine home care (which includes care in a facility), continuous home care during a short crisis, inpatient respite (up to five consecutive days per occurrence) and general inpatient care for symptoms that cannot be controlled where the patient lives. Sources: medicare.gov; the National Alliance for Care at Home.
Respite when the caregiver is a spouse
Here the caregiver is very often a husband or wife in their eighties. Inpatient respite gives that spouse up to five consecutive days of real rest; volunteers can cover a few hours at home. A spouse who collapses helps no one.
Resources for Farmington Hills families
- The Costick Activities Center on Eleven Mile, the city’s senior services hub.
- Area Agency on Aging 1-B, just down the road in Southfield, for in-home services and the MI Choice Medicaid waiver.
- Oakland County Veterans’ Services in Pontiac. Lily has a Veteran Advisory Committee and a Veteran Rapid Response program and is working toward VA Community Care Network participation. Lily is family-owned, not veteran-owned. See our veterans page.
- Our articles at our resources on hospice in assisted living.
Why Farmington Hills families choose Lily
Family-owned in Troy. Medicare-certified and ACHC-accredited. A real person on the phone at every hour. At ease inside a facility’s routine as well as in a private home. And the Journey Program, which uses virtual reality to give a patient who no longer leaves her room an afternoon on a beach, in a great cathedral or synagogue, or in a city she left long ago. More at why families choose Lily.
How to reach us from Farmington Hills
Our office is at 2125 Butterfield Dr, Suite 299, Troy, MI 48084: I-696 east to I-75 north, roughly 25 to 30 minutes. You do not need to make the trip; we come to you or to the facility.
Nearby pages: Novi, Southfield, Oakland County.
Frequently asked questions
The assisted living community says they “have a hospice they work with.” Do we have to use it? No. You have the right under Medicare to choose any certified hospice. Facilities cannot require you to use a particular one.
Does hospice cover the cost of memory care? No. Room and board is separate. Hospice covers the hospice services, medications, equipment and supplies related to the terminal illness.
Can our rabbi or imam be involved? Yes. Our chaplain supports your family’s own clergy and traditions. Tell us what matters and we will build the plan around it.
Talk to us
Call (248) 955-5100 and a real person at Lily Hospice will answer, day or night. Or reach us at our contact page.
Common questions
Which hospice can admit the same day, including weekends? · Can hospice come to assisted living or memory care? · Hospice for a veteran in metro Detroit · Which hospice is best in metro Detroit? · Is Lily a good hospice? An honest answer · All 104 metro Detroit hospices compared · Who answers a hospice phone at night? · Hospice with Medicaid only or no insurance · Can I keep my own doctor? · How to start hospice this weekend