The EASE Act of 2025 mandates that Medicare-participating hospitals provide specific information about available local hospice and necessary follow-up care options to patients upon discharge.
Erin Houchin
Representative
IN-9
The EASE Act of 2025 mandates that Medicare-participating hospitals provide specific, tailored information to patients upon discharge. This ensures that individuals likely needing follow-up care, such as home health or extended care, receive a list of available local providers. Crucially, the bill requires hospitals to inform eligible patients about local Medicare-participating hospice programs.
EASE Act Mandates Hospitals List Local Hospice Options for Medicare Patients Starting January 2026
The End-of-life Access to Supportive and Essential care Act of 2025 (EASE Act) sounds bureaucratic, but this section is pretty straightforward: it’s about making sure hospitals actually tell Medicare patients about their options when they leave the building. If you or a family member are on Medicare and heading home after a hospital stay, this bill changes the discharge paperwork to make it more useful.
The Upgrade to Discharge Papers
Starting January 1, 2026, hospitals participating in Medicare have to upgrade their discharge planning process. Right now, hospitals are supposed to mention general availability of post-acute care. The EASE Act mandates they get specific and targeted. For example, if the hospital staff determines you’re likely going to need home health services—maybe you had knee surgery and need physical therapy at home—they must now provide you with a list of local, Medicare-participating home health agencies. The same goes for extended care services, like skilled nursing facilities (SNFs).
Finally, Timely Hospice Information
The biggest change here involves hospice care. If a patient is determined to be “likely eligible” for hospice care, the hospital must provide them with a list of local, Medicare-participating hospice programs. This is a huge deal because, historically, conversations about end-of-life care and hospice often happen too late, if at all, leaving families scrambling during an already difficult time. This provision forces that information—and the contact details of local providers—to be put into the patient’s hands proactively.
Who Feels the Change?
For Medicare patients and their families, this is a clear win for informed choice. Think of a scenario where an elderly parent has a serious diagnosis; instead of waiting until the last minute, the hospital must now give the family a concrete list of local hospice providers covered by Medicare. This allows them to research, ask questions, and make decisions while the patient is still stable. It’s about giving people control over their care transition.
On the flip side, this means a new administrative lift for Medicare-participating hospitals. They now have to maintain and accurately deliver these localized lists of providers—home health, SNFs, and hospice—for every relevant discharge. While this is necessary for good patient care, it adds complexity to the discharge planning process. Furthermore, the bill relies on the hospital staff’s judgment to determine if a patient is “likely eligible” for services like hospice. This subjective call could lead to inconsistent application across different facilities, which is something to watch as implementation rolls out.