Short answer: No. Hospice requires a doctor’s certification of a life expectancy of six months or less, but coverage continues for two 90-day benefit periods followed by an unlimited number of 60-day periods, as long as the hospice doctor recertifies that the person is still terminally ill.
To start hospice, the person must have Part A, be certified terminally ill by the hospice doctor and their regular doctor (if they have one), accept comfort care instead of treatment to cure the illness, and sign a hospice election statement. Recertification after six months requires a face-to-face visit with the hospice doctor or nurse practitioner.
The person can change hospice providers once in each benefit period, and can stop hospice to resume curative treatment; people who improve sometimes leave hospice and return later.
The six months is a prognosis, not a deadline. Families often worry coverage will end on a date; it does not.