Medicare moves to cover palliative care at home

On July 1, 2026, Medicare proposed its payment rules for home health care in 2027, and tucked inside is a change that could matter to families managing a serious illness. Medicare is proposing that skilled palliative care can be provided and paid for under the existing home health benefit for eligible patients with serious illnesses. Palliative care is care focused on relief from the symptoms and stress of a serious illness, and it is easy to confuse with hospice, but they are not the same thing. Hospice is for the last stretch of life, when curative treatment has stopped. Palliative care can start much earlier, alongside treatment meant to fight the illness, and the point is comfort and quality of life. Under this proposal, Medicare states that palliative care under the home health benefit is separate from hospice and may support patients earlier in the course of a serious illness, with more examples of covered care to come through later guidance. The same proposed rule does two other things a Medicare household may notice. It sets home health payment rates for 2027, with Medicare estimating total payments to home health agencies would rise about 2.4 percent, or roughly 420 million dollars, compared with 2026. And it adds fraud and program integrity safeguards aimed at keeping bad actors out of Medicare, which Medicare estimates could save about 82 million dollars a year. Because this is a proposal, nothing is final yet; it is open for public comment before Medicare issues a final rule. Still, the direction is worth knowing: Medicare is trying to make comfort-focused care at home easier to get earlier in a serious illness.