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Caring for those in need for 42 years


To provide leadership in the development and application of hospice and its philosophy of care with the goal of enhancing the U.S. healthcare system and the role of hospice within it.

Our Core Values

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Hospice is something more when doctors say there’s nothing more they can do.

Hospice offers patient care that alleviates symptoms and opens the door to meaningful moments with family and friends. For some patients, hospice can even extend life.

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Everyone deserves the comfort that hospice provides.

We work to ensure that all individuals, regardless of race, ethnicity, location, disability, income level, or sexual orientation, receive needed care through clinical education and outreach to underserved populations.

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Optimal care starts with knowledge.

We improve care at the bedside by educating professional caregivers about timely, relevant topics, and informing patients and families through free one-on-one consultation, programs, and publications.

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Bereavement care is essential to humanity’s wellbeing.

We enhance the bereavement support provided to families by certified hospices with professional training, publications, and a grief-focused Facebook page.

We’re here for patients, families, and friends.


Knowing the facts about hospice and grief care is critical. If you’re in need of guidance about end-of-life options or grief, we’re here to answer your questions at no cost through our Ask an Expert service. Funded by generous donations and staffed by a board-certified nurse practitioner and the nation’s foremost grief experts, your question will be answered, in most cases, within 24 hours.

Click below for answers to common questions and for information about grief and grieving. Visit our Journeys with Grief Facebook page here

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Become an HFA member and join thousands of like-minded healthcare and social service professionals who value award-winning programming. Our platform of excellence will sharpen your skills and introduce you to new ideas, theories, and practices through evidence-based training.

Partner with us to involve your community in ground-breaking research, theatre, and engagement around advance care planning to prepare for end-of-life decision making before a crisis occurs. Our publications will help raise awareness of hospice, grief, caregiving, and volunteering.

HFA in numbers

Numbers never tell the whole story, but here’s a snapshot of what we’ve accomplished in the past five years.

21,952

Continuing education hours awarded to end-of-life care professionals nationwide on topics such as ethics, pain management, trauma-informed care, and bereavement.

446

Underserved communities in the U.S. who participated in HFA programs and research focused on improving end-of-life decision making through advance care planning.

45,235

Individuals who receive monthly grief support from our Journeys newsletter, which offers expert advice, validation, and counsel to anyone coping with loss.

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Ninety-five cents of every dollar donated to HFA goes directly to improving hospice and bereavement care in the U.S. and making it accessible for all.

HFA through the years

2024

Launched Journeys with Grief Facebook page offering expert advice for the bereaved; partnered with Aging with Dignity; introduced Five Wishes® series of courses to train facilitators in using the nation’s most used advance care directive.

2023

Launched AutismandGrief.org with the support of the NLM Foundation, providing a grief toolkit for adults with autism, their families, and the professionals who support them

2022

Partnered with filmmaker Dr. Jessica Zitter to bring Hospice: A Love Story to California hospices for education and discussion sessions, raising awareness of the potential stresses of hospice family caregiving.

2021

Penn State College of Medicine researchers and HFA are awarded a major five-year grant to fund the Project Talk Trial, a national study of advance care planning interventions.

2020

Launched a series of free online educational events for over 9,000 hospice and grief professionals seeking learning opportunities related to COVID-19.

2019

HFA’s Senior Vice President for Grief Programs, Kenneth J. Doka, PhD, MDiv, received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Death Education and Counseling.

2018

HFA and the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center received funding from the JWH Foundation to study the use of Hello, an advance care planning game, in 50 underserved communities around the U.S.

2017

With support from the JWH Foundation, HFA coordinated a national rollout of the PBS documentary Being Mortal to more than 1,200 communities that host public events about advance care planning.

2014

Released Hospice: Something More, a one-hour special program funded by the John and Wauna Harman Foundation that dispels myths about hospice care.

2011

Awarded a federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services grant to produce HFA CARES webinar series about hospice and end-of-life care topics.

2005

HFA received a Freddy Award for outstanding documentary presentation for its Living with Grief® program, Alzheimer’s Disease, which featured Sargent Shriver, the first director of the Peace Corps and U.S. Ambassador to France.

2005

Provided support post-Hurricane Katrina, helping family members connect with hospice patients in the aftermath of the storm and providing a satellite telephones to hospice leaders in Louisiana.

2003

Awarded a grant by the State of Florida to develop the End of Life Clergy Education Project, a comprehensive continuing education program for clergy focused on end-of-life care, hospice care, and bereavement care.

1994

Published its first issue of Journeys: A Newsletter to Help in Bereavement. Written by experts, the newsletter offers expert advice, validation, and compassion to the bereaved.

1994

Launched its inaugural Living with Grief® program to educate hospice and bereavement professionals nationwide via satellite. It is one of the first distance learning programs in the U.S. and the first distance learning program for hospice and grief professionals.

1982

Hospice Foundation of America, Inc. is founded as Hospice, Inc. by some of the foremost hospice pioneers in the U.S. whose work to help Congress shape the Medicare benefit for hospice, which becomes law in 1983.