Hospice Care for Veterans in Metro Detroit
If your father, your wife, or your grandfather served, their care at the end of life should account for that service. Not as a ceremony tacked on at the end, but in the way we take a history, manage symptoms, talk about what they carry, and bring other veterans to the bedside.
Lily Hospice is a family-owned, Medicare-certified hospice based in Troy. We serve veterans across Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties, wherever they live: at home, in assisted living, in memory care, or in a nursing facility. This page explains how the VA hospice benefit works, what Lily does specifically for veterans, and the practical steps your family can take this week.
How the VA hospice benefit works with Medicare
Veterans have more than one way to pay for hospice, and the choice does not have to be made alone. Here is the plain version.
If a veteran is enrolled in VA health care, hospice is a covered benefit. The VA may provide it directly, or it may pay a community hospice like Lily to provide it through the VA Community Care program. The VA does not charge copays for hospice care.
If a veteran has Medicare, the Medicare hospice benefit is available exactly as it is for any other beneficiary: a physician certifies a prognosis of six months or less if the illness runs its normal course, and the patient elects hospice instead of curative treatment for the terminal illness. Medicare pays the hospice directly. Medications, equipment, and supplies related to the terminal illness are covered. The patient may owe up to $5 per prescription for symptom-control drugs and 5% of the Medicare-approved amount for inpatient respite care. Source: medicare.gov.
Most veterans have both. A veteran enrolled in VA health care who also has Medicare can receive hospice through either. Many families choose Medicare hospice because it starts fast and works with any certified hospice. Others prefer VA-authorized care because there are no copays and the VA already knows the veteran’s history. There is no wrong answer, and a veteran can keep receiving other VA services (pharmacy, prosthetics, mental health) while on hospice.
When you call Lily, we will ask whether the veteran is enrolled in VA health care, which VA facility they use, and what other coverage they have. Then we help you pick the path that starts care soonest with the least paperwork for you.
VA Community Care Network
The VA’s Community Care Network is how the VA pays outside providers to care for enrolled veterans close to home. We are working toward participation in the VA Community Care Network so that VA-authorized hospice can be delivered by Lily directly. In the meantime, if a veteran wants care authorized by the VA, we will help your family work with the VA social worker at the veteran’s VA facility to arrange it.
The We Honor Veterans program
We Honor Veterans is a national program created by the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (now the National Alliance for Care at Home) with the Department of Veterans Affairs. It gives hospices a structured path for doing veteran care well: identifying veterans at admission, training staff on military culture and service-related conditions, building relationships with the local VA, and recruiting veteran volunteers. We treat it as the industry standard for what a hospice owes the veterans it serves, and Lily follows the We Honor Veterans framework.
What Lily does for veterans
Veteran Advisory Committee
Lily’s Veteran Advisory Committee is a group of veterans and community members who advise us on how we care for veterans. They review what we do, tell us where we fall short, and help us understand what a veteran and a veteran’s family actually need from a hospice. They are not employees. They are people who served, or who have loved someone who did, and who agreed to hold us to a standard.
Veteran Rapid Response
When a veteran needs hospice, waiting days for an evaluation is not acceptable. Our Veteran Rapid Response program was built to get veteran families help quickly.
Veteran-to-veteran volunteers
Some things a veteran will only say to another veteran. Our volunteer program includes veterans who visit veteran patients. Sometimes they talk about service. Sometimes they watch the game. Either way, there is a person in the room who does not need anything explained.
Pinning ceremonies
A pinning ceremony is a short, simple recognition: a pin, a certificate, a few words of thanks, and often family, a volunteer, and a chaplain in the room. For some veterans it is the first time anyone has thanked them. For families it becomes one of the memories they keep. We offer a ceremony to veterans who would like one, at home or in a facility.
Why veterans’ end-of-life needs are different
Military service leaves marks, and some of them show up at the very end.
Service-related conditions. Agent Orange exposure in Vietnam is linked to certain cancers, Parkinson’s disease, and heart disease. Burn-pit exposure, radiation, cold injury from Korea, and hearing loss all shape how a veteran’s illness presents and how symptoms need to be managed. We ask about service history at admission for this reason.
PTSD and moral injury. Post-traumatic stress can resurface near the end of life, even in a veteran who has managed it for decades. Moral injury is different: it is the weight of what someone did, saw, or failed to stop, and it can come out as guilt, withdrawal, or a need to talk about something for the first time. Our nurses, social workers, and chaplains are attentive to it and do not flinch.
Vietnam-era veterans often came home to silence or hostility. Many never told their families much. A pinning ceremony or a veteran volunteer can open something that was closed for fifty years.
Korea-era veterans are now in their nineties. Their war is often called forgotten, and many of them feel that. Recognition matters, and so does attention to cold-injury history.
Stoicism. Many veterans under-report pain. “I’m fine” is a habit. Our team learns to ask differently.
Practical steps for your family
- Find out if the veteran is enrolled in VA health care. If not, enrollment can be started at va.gov. Enrollment takes time, so do not let it delay Medicare hospice if care is needed now.
- Locate the DD-214. This discharge document proves service and is needed for VA benefits, burial benefits, and military funeral honors. If it is lost, request a replacement through the National Archives.
- Contact your county Veteran Affairs office. Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties each have one, staffed by accredited service officers who help with claims, benefits, and burial at no cost.
- Know your VA medical center. The John D. Dingell VA Medical Center in Detroit serves much of the metro area. The VA social worker there is your point of contact for VA-authorized hospice.
- Ask about burial benefits early. Veterans may be eligible for burial in a national cemetery, a headstone or marker, a burial flag, and a Presidential Memorial Certificate. Our social worker can help with the paperwork.
- Call us. We will do most of the sorting for you.
Frequently asked questions
Can a veteran use both VA benefits and Medicare hospice? Yes. A veteran enrolled in VA health care can receive hospice through either the VA or Medicare, and can continue to use other VA services while on hospice. We help families decide which path starts care fastest.
Does the VA charge for hospice? No. The VA does not charge copays for hospice care for enrolled veterans.
Do you have to be enrolled in VA health care to get hospice from Lily? No. Any veteran with Medicare, Medicaid, or private insurance can receive Lily’s care. VA enrollment simply adds options and benefits.
What if my father never talked about his service? That is common, especially for Vietnam-era veterans. We will not push. We will offer a veteran volunteer, a pinning ceremony, and a chaplain who knows how to listen, and we will follow his lead.
Is Lily a veteran-owned company? No. Lily is family-owned. Our commitment to veterans comes through our Veteran Advisory Committee, our Veteran Rapid Response program, our veteran volunteers, and our work with the VA.
Resources
- VA health care enrollment: va.gov/health-care/apply
- VA hospice and palliative care overview: va.gov/geriatrics
- We Honor Veterans: wehonorveterans.org
- National Alliance for Care at Home (formerly NHPCO): allianceforcareathome.org
- Medicare hospice benefit: medicare.gov/coverage/hospice-care
- Replace a DD-214: archives.gov/veterans
- John D. Dingell VA Medical Center, Detroit
- Oakland County Veterans’ Services
- Macomb County Veterans’ Services
- Wayne County Veterans’ Affairs
- Veterans Crisis Line: dial 988, then press 1
- Great Lakes National Cemetery, Holly, MI
Talk to us
If a veteran in your family needs hospice, or you are not sure yet, call Lily Hospice at (248) 955-5100. A real person answers, day or night. We will ask a few questions, help you understand the VA and Medicare options, and arrange an evaluation quickly.
Written and reviewed by the Lily Hospice clinical team.