| Course | MSW 533 Death, Dying, and Bereavement |
|---|---|
| Week | 4 |
| Paper type | Hospice benefit brief |
| Length | About 390 words, 4 pages |
| Format | Memo with APA 7 citations |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | Master of Social Work (MSW) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MSW 533 Week 4
Memorandum
To: The family of a patient newly referred to hospice
From: Hospice social work intern
Date: October 6, 2026
Re: What the Medicare hospice benefit covers, in plain terms
Who This Is For
You are reading this because a doctor has suggested hospice for your family member. This page explains what Medicare's hospice benefit covers and what it does not.
Who Qualifies
Two doctors, usually the patient's own doctor and the hospice's medical director, must certify that the patient is terminally ill and, if the illness follows its expected course, expected to die within about six months. The patient also chooses comfort care instead of treatment aimed at curing the terminal illness (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 2023).
The Six-Month Sentence, Explained
The six-month wording is a prediction, not a deadline. Hospice does not end at six months. If the patient lives longer, a doctor recertifies the patient for further benefit periods as long as the patient still qualifies. Many people live longer than expected on hospice, and some improve enough to leave it.
The Four Levels of Care
Most days are routine home care: the hospice nurse, an aide, the social worker and the chaplain come to wherever your family member lives, on a schedule. If breathing or pain spirals at night, continuous home care puts a nurse in the home for long stretches until the crisis passes. If even that cannot settle things, a general inpatient stay in a hospice unit or hospital follows, usually for a few days. And if you are worn out, respite care admits your family member for up to five days so you can sleep.
What Is Not Covered
Treatment meant to cure the terminal illness. Room and board if the patient lives in a nursing home or assisted living. Care from providers the hospice did not arrange, including emergency room visits, unless the hospice approved them. Medicare still covers care for problems unrelated to the terminal illness.
What You May Pay
A small copay for medicines for pain and symptoms, and a small share of the cost of respite stays.
Leaving Hospice Is Allowed
The patient can stop hospice at any time, for example to try a new treatment, by signing a form. If the patient later wants hospice again, they can return if they still qualify. Choosing hospice is not a trap.
Who to Call
Call the hospice's 24-hour line for any change, day or night, before calling 911.
References
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (2023). Medicare hospice benefits (Publication No. 02154). U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
MSW 533 Week 4 instructions, in plain terms
The hospice benefit brief is short and answerable, closer to something handed across a kitchen table than to a paper. Say who the brief is written for. State eligibility as the two physician certifications and the six-month wording, and explain plainly that the wording describes a prognosis, not a deadline. Describe the four levels of care in terms of when a family would use each. List what is not covered, including room and board in a facility and treatment aimed at cure. Mention costs the family may pay. Explain that the patient can leave hospice and return if still eligible. Close with whom to call. Cite the official benefit description.
How this MSW 533 Week 4 example is built
The opening tells the family why they are reading the brief. The eligibility section names the two certifications and the choice of comfort care, citing Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (2023). A section explains that six months is a prediction and that recertification continues the benefit. The four levels are described by when each is used, from routine visits to continuous nursing in a crisis, short inpatient stays and respite of up to five days. A section lists what is not covered, including curative treatment, facility room and board and care not arranged by hospice. Small copays follow. A section on revocation explains leaving and returning, and the close asks families to call the hospice line before 911.
MSW 533 Week 4 rubric: what full points look like
Faculty grade the brief on whether a family could use it. A brief written as policy analysis, full of regulation numbers, loses ground. The six-month sentence must be explained correctly as a prognosis; describing it as a time limit is a serious error. Credit goes to the four levels described by use, a clear list of what is not covered and a plain account of revocation. Saying who the brief is for and whom to call shows it was designed for a reader. Figures need not be exact if described accurately as small copays. The official source should be cited in APA. One page is the target.
MSW 533 Week 4 help: mistakes that cost points
Briefs most often lose points by presenting hospice as giving up, or by implying the patient must die within six months. Another common gap is leaving out room and board, which surprises families whose relative lives in a facility. Some briefs never mention that the patient can leave hospice. Others are written for colleagues instead of families. If your reader is different, perhaps an assisted living staff member or a patient who reads English as a second language, adjust the language and keep the same parts. A brief that works for your family will answer the question they are afraid to ask: what happens if we change our minds.
Get a MSW-533 Week 4 example written to your instructions
Send the assignment as written, with the audience it names and any page limit, and a completed brief comes back inside 24 to 48 hours at no cost. Ask for the source list to be left in it. On this deliverable the sources are half the value, because a figure a family can check is the difference between a brief and a leaflet.
More MSW 533 papers and MSW samples
- MSW 533 Week 1: One Family Incident Post
- MSW 533 Week 2: Personal Loss History Paper
- MSW 533 Week 3: Grief Models Applied to One Account
- MSW 533 Week 5: Survivor Benefits Write-up
- MSW 533 Week 6: Complicated Grief Case Study
- MSW 533 Week 7: Bereavement Support Plan
- MSW 533 Week 8: Worker Grief Reflection
- MSW 535 Week 4: Overdose Response Brief
- MSW 532 Week 4: Surrogate Decision Memo
- MSW 531 Week 4: Elderspeak Ageism Analysis
- MSW 529 Week 4: County Service Gap Map
MSW 533 Week 4 questions, answered
Do I have to give exact dollar figures?
Only where the assignment asks for them, and always with a source and a date beside each one. Coverage rules are revised, so a figure lifted from an undated page is worse than no figure at all. Where nothing reliable is available, naming the category of cost and what determines it is accepted by most rubrics and preferred by some.
Should the brief cover what happens after the death?
Check what your section asks for. Many hospice programs carry bereavement contact with the family for a period after a death, and a brief mentioning it is usually rewarded, since families do not expect the service to continue at all. One or two sentences is enough. The support planning itself belongs to a later week and doubling it here wins nothing.
Can the brief be written for a real family from my job?
Most sections do not require a case at all for this one, and where the brief is addressed to a particular household the details can be built from the vignette you were given. If you do work from something real, take the identifying material out before writing and keep the household generic: a daughter, a rented apartment, one car between them.
Where can I find a free MSW 533 Week 4 sample paper?
This page holds a complete MSW 533 Week 4 hospice benefit brief written for a family, with margin notes on the six-month sentence and levels of care.
Does the six-month rule mean hospice ends at six months in the MSW 533 Week 4 sample?
No. The brief explains that six months is a prognosis, and a doctor can recertify the patient for further periods as long as the patient still qualifies.