Home Health and Hospice Agency Website Essentials

Updated 2026-10-16 · 6 minute read

Two audiences, two different questions

A nursing home website is mostly read by families. A home health or hospice agency website has a second reader who matters just as much: the hospital case manager, discharge planner, physician's office or nursing home social worker who is deciding where to send a patient. That person is busy, has three agencies to choose from, and wants to know one thing: can you take this patient, in this town, now?

Families ask different questions. What is home health? Does my mother qualify? What does hospice actually mean for us this week? Who do I call at 2 a.m.? The best agency sites answer the referral source's question on the first screen and the family's questions one click away, with neither getting in the way of the other.

Show your service area like you mean it

The first thing a discharge planner checks is whether you cover the patient's address. "Serving the greater metro area" does not answer that. List the counties you serve and the main towns in each. A simple map helps, but do not make it the only place the information lives, because a map image cannot be read by a screen reader or by a search engine.

If your coverage is uneven, say so. "We cover all of these counties for skilled nursing and therapy; speech therapy is available in these two" is more useful than a bigger list that leads to a declined referral. Every declined referral costs you a little trust with that case manager.

If you have more than one branch, give each its own location page with the address, phone, the counties it covers and its own Google Business Profile. Google's Business Profile guidelines say a service-area business should have one profile for its office with the address hidden from customers if it does not serve people there, and that there should only be one profile per business location.

Explain home health eligibility accurately

Families and even some referral sources mix up Medicare home health with private-duty home care. Your site should explain the difference in plain words. According to Medicare.gov, a person qualifies for Medicare home health when they are homebound, need part-time or intermittent skilled services, have been seen in person by a doctor or allowed provider who orders the care, and get care from a Medicare-certified agency. Medicare does not cover 24-hour care at home, meal delivery, or homemaker and personal care when that is the only care needed.

"Homebound" is the word families misunderstand most. Many think it means bedbound. CMS's Medicare Benefit Policy Manual, chapter 7 (section 30.1.1) uses two criteria. First, the person needs a device like a walker or wheelchair, special transportation, or another person's help to leave home, or leaving home is medically contraindicated. Second, there is a normal inability to leave home and leaving requires a considerable and taxing effort. The same section says absences for health care, such as dialysis, chemotherapy or a licensed adult day program, do not disqualify someone, and neither do infrequent or short absences such as attending religious services, a trip to the barber or a family event.

Put that explanation on a page families can read, in plain words, and end with: "Your doctor and our clinical team decide whether you qualify. Call us and we will help you find out." For referral sources, a short note helps: the face-to-face encounter must relate to the main reason for home health and, under 42 CFR 424.22, occur no more than 90 days before or within 30 days after the start of care.

Explain hospice eligibility with care

Hospice families are reading under the worst kind of stress. Write gently and get the facts exactly right. Under 42 CFR part 418, subpart B, a person can elect the Medicare hospice benefit if they are entitled to Part A and certified as terminally ill, meaning a prognosis of a life expectancy of 6 months or less if the illness runs its normal course. The benefit runs in an initial 90-day period, a second 90-day period, then an unlimited number of 60-day periods. A hospice physician or nurse practitioner must have a face-to-face encounter before the third benefit period recertification and every one after.

Two facts calm families and belong on your site. First, people can live longer than six months on hospice. The certification is a physician's judgment about the normal course of the illness, and recertification continues as long as the person remains eligible. Second, the person or their representative may revoke the hospice election at any time, per 42 CFR 418.28, and can elect hospice again later if eligible.

Also say what Medicare.gov's hospice page says about costs: no charge for hospice care, up to $5 per prescription for drugs for pain and symptom control, 5 percent for inpatient respite care, and no coverage for room and board. Do not soften that last point. A family whose father lives in assisted living needs to know his rent continues.

Make referrals easy, and keep them safe

Give referral sources their own page, linked in the main menu as "Make a referral" or "For physicians and case managers." Most of them will phone or fax, so put your intake phone and fax numbers at the top in large type, with the hours a real person answers.

An online referral form is useful, but treat it as what it is: a way to send protected health information. Only offer it if it is built and hosted to protect that information and your compliance officer has approved the setup. Never send referral form submissions through a plain contact form plugin to a general inbox. If you cannot do it properly, offer a short "request a callback" form that asks for the referrer's name, facility and phone number and no patient details.

On the same page, list what you need to start care: the order, face-to-face documentation, recent history and physical, medication list, insurance information. A clear list cuts back-and-forth and shows the referrer that your intake team is organized.

Put the 24/7 number everywhere

For hospice this is not optional. The hospice conditions of participation at 42 CFR 418.100 require that nursing services, physician services, and drugs and biologicals be routinely available on a 24-hour basis, 7 days a week. Your website should make that promise visible: one phone number, in the header of every page, tappable on a phone, labeled so it is clear a nurse answers at night.

Home health agencies should be equally clear about after-hours coverage for current patients and about how to reach intake. If the after-hours line goes to an answering service, say so honestly and say how quickly a nurse calls back.

Use Care Compare instead of running from it

Referral sources and families look agencies up on Medicare's Care Compare. You can be the one who points them there. For home health, CMS publishes two kinds of star ratings, according to its home health star ratings page: a Quality of Patient Care rating built from OASIS assessments and claims data, and a Patient Survey rating built from the Home Health CAHPS survey. Agencies need at least 40 completed surveys over the four-quarter reporting period to get patient survey stars.

For hospice, the CAHPS Hospice Survey asks family members or other unpaid caregivers about the care of patients who died in hospice. CMS's hospice public reporting page shows those survey results and quality measures on Care Compare and posts each quarterly refresh. It also notes that quality measures now come from the Hospice Outcomes and Patient Evaluation (HOPE) tool.

If your ratings are strong, show them with the date of the data and link to your Care Compare listing. If they are mixed, link anyway and talk about what you are doing to improve. Never screenshot a rating and leave it up after the next refresh, and never show a star rating CMS did not give you.

What families need on the other half of the site

Once the referral path is clear, give families the pages they keep coming back to:

What home health or hospice is, in plain language, with what a first visit looks like.
Your care team by role: nurses, aides, therapists, social workers, chaplains and volunteers, with real photos used with permission.
Who pays, with Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance explained accurately and with the year next to any dollar figures.
For hospice: grief and bereavement support, which families return to for months, and how to volunteer.
Your notices: notice of privacy practices, nondiscrimination notice and accessibility statement, linked in the footer.

This guide summarizes what CMS and the federal regulations say. It is not legal or billing advice, and your organization should confirm wording about eligibility and coverage with its compliance officer or counsel.

Checklist

Counties and towns served listed in text, per branch.
Intake phone and fax at the top of a dedicated referral page.
A list of documents you need to start care.
No patient details collected by a standard contact form; any online referral form approved by compliance.
24/7 number in the header of every page, tappable on mobile.
Homebound and hospice eligibility explained in plain words, with the physician's role made clear.
Hospice page says families can stop hospice at any time and that room and board is not covered.
Care Compare link with the date of any ratings you show.
One Google Business Profile per branch office, following Google's service-area rules.
Compliance sign-off on eligibility and payment pages.

Questions

Should a home health website have an online referral form?

Only if it is built to protect patient information and your compliance officer approves it. Many referral sources still phone or fax, so make those numbers prominent first. A callback request form that collects no patient details is a safe alternative.

How should we explain homebound status to families?

Say that homebound does not mean bedbound. Under Medicare's rules, leaving home must take considerable and taxing effort, but trips for medical care, adult day health, religious services or occasional short outings do not disqualify someone. Then say that the doctor and your clinical team make the actual decision.

Can someone stay on hospice longer than six months?

Yes. Federal rules allow an unlimited number of 60-day benefit periods after the first two 90-day periods, as long as the person is recertified as terminally ill. A face-to-face encounter is required before the third period and each one after.

Should we post our Care Compare star ratings?

Linking to your Care Compare listing is a good idea either way. If you show the stars themselves, label the data period and update or remove them when CMS refreshes the data.

Sources

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Confirm regulatory and legal questions with your compliance officer or counsel.

Ready for a better website?

If referral sources and families both need more from your agency's site, Census designs home health and hospice websites with a clear referral path, a 24/7 number on every page and accurate eligibility pages.

What a home health or hospice agency website needs