Hospice Referrals for Skilled Nursing Facilities & Hospital Discharge Planners in Orange County

24/7 referral intake: (714) 844-7777 · Medicare-certified hospice, CCN 551689 · ACHC-accredited · Westminster, Orange County

Maxcare Hospice has worked with Orange County physicians, case managers, skilled nursing facility (SNF) teams and hospital discharge planners since 2011. We’re a Vietnamese American family-owned hospice in Westminster. Our team speaks English and Vietnamese, and we have one Korean-speaking nurse, which helps when a resident’s family prefers to talk about care in their own language.

How to refer

1. Call (714) 844-7777, any time. Intake is available 24/7. Tell us your name, your facility and a callback number. A referral can start with a phone call.
2. Or request a callback on our referral page. The form asks only for your name, phone and ZIP code. Please don’t enter patient names, diagnoses or insurance numbers in any website form.
3. Send records securely. Our intake team will give you fax and secure transmission instructions by phone. Please don’t send patient information by regular email.
4. We evaluate and coordinate. We aim to complete a hospice evaluation the same day when a referral reaches us early enough in the day. Otherwise, we schedule the next available visit and tell you when. We keep you, the attending physician and the family updated.

Documents that help us confirm eligibility

You don’t need everything to start; our intake team will tell you what’s still needed. Send these only through the secure method we give you by phone:

• Physician order or referral for hospice evaluation
• Primary terminal diagnosis and relevant comorbidities
• Recent history and physical, and progress notes showing decline
• Medication list and allergies
• Recent labs or imaging that support the prognosis
• Functional status (for example PPS or Karnofsky, ADLs, FAST stage for dementia)
• Recent hospitalizations, ER visits, weight loss or infections
• Insurance face sheet (Medicare or other)
• Advance directive, POLST and code status, if available
• Attending physician who will follow the patient, and the decision-maker’s contact and preferred language

Print our referral checklist · Hospice eligibility guidelines

For skilled nursing facilities

• Hospice can care for long-term residents in your facility. Our nurses, aides, social worker and chaplain visit on a schedule and work with your staff under a written hospice–facility agreement and a coordinated plan of care.
• The Medicare hospice benefit doesn’t pay for room and board in a nursing facility. Call us to talk through how this works for each resident’s coverage.
• A resident generally can’t use the Medicare Part A SNF benefit for the terminal illness at the same time as the hospice benefit. We’ll help your team and the family plan the timing.
• A live person answers 24/7 for your staff when symptoms change.

For hospital discharge planners and case managers

• Call us when hospice comes up, even before the discharge date is set. We can talk with the family, check eligibility and work with the attending physician.
• We aim to coordinate equipment, medications and the first nursing visit for the day the patient arrives home or at their facility.
• We care for patients in private homes, board and care homes, assisted living and SNFs across Orange County. See where we care.

Eligibility and choice

Hospice requires a physician’s certification that the patient has a life expectancy of six months or less if the illness runs its normal course. The patient, or their legal representative, chooses the hospice and signs the election. We respect every patient’s choice of provider. We do not offer gifts, meals, payments or anything of value in exchange for referrals.

Families can call us themselves too: you can call us yourself; we check eligibility and work with your doctor.

Referral questions

Can a resident receive hospice care while living in our skilled nursing facility?

Yes. Hospice care can be provided to residents of skilled nursing facilities, assisted living and board and care homes. Hospice in a nursing facility requires a written agreement between the hospice and the facility. Medicare’s hospice benefit does not pay for room and board in a nursing facility, so call us to talk through the resident’s coverage.

How quickly can you evaluate a referral?

We aim to complete an evaluation the same day when a referral reaches us early enough in the day. Intake is available 24/7 at (714) 844-7777. Timing also depends on records, the physician’s order and the family’s decision.

What do you need to start a referral?

A phone call is enough to start. Our intake team will tell you which records they still need, usually a physician order, recent clinical notes, a medication list and the insurance face sheet. Please send records only through the secure method our intake team gives you by phone, never through website forms or regular email.

Who chooses the hospice?

The patient, or their legal representative, chooses the hospice and signs the hospice election. We respect every patient’s choice of provider, and we do not offer gifts or anything of value in exchange for referrals.