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Headwaters Hospice And Palliative Care, Llc

2625 Winne Ave #A1 -, Helena, MT 59601

(406) 422-0114
D

Below average

52 / 100

Ownership
n/a
Medicare certified
December 2023
Patients on any given day
13
CCN
271542

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Headwaters Hospice And Palliative Care, ElderGrade D summary card

This is the card people see when this page is shared or linked, built from the same federal figures shown above.

What to ask about before you visit

These are findings in the public CMS record for this hospice. They are not our opinion, each one comes straight from the federal hospice quality file or the CMS family caregiver survey.

  • 67% of live discharges happened soon after admission

    A high early live-discharge rate can mean patients are being enrolled who were not eligible for hospice. Ask what happens to your Medicare hospice benefit if you are discharged.

What this costs you

If the patient has Medicare Part A and a doctor certifies a life expectancy of six months or less, the Medicare Hospice Benefit pays this provider directly. The family pays nothing for hospice visits, nursing, medicines related to the terminal illness, or equipment. No hospice may charge you for those and none may ask for a deposit. Medicare paid this provider an average of $8,613 per patient over the measurement period. That is what the federal government spent, not what a family pays, we publish it because it is the number the provider is paid on.

How we graded it

Our method
  • Family caregiver experience

    6.25 / 30

    What bereaved family caregivers said about the hospice afterwards, in the CMS-run CAHPS Hospice Survey.

    • 80% of families would definitely recommend it (national median 86%)
  • Presence at the end

    16.25 / 25

    Whether a nurse or social worker was actually there in the final days, which is the single thing families remember.

    • No last-days visit rate published, scored just under the national average rather than guessed at
  • Nursing presence

    13 / 20

    How much registered-nurse time patients get, and how often visits lapse for days at a time.

  • Discharge integrity

    9.75 / 15

    How often patients are signed off hospice alive, the pattern that shows up when a provider enrols people who were never dying, or drops people who become expensive.

  • Care process

    6.5 / 10

    Whether the basics were done at admission: pain screened, breathlessness treated, treatment preferences and beliefs asked about.

    • No composite process score published, scored just under the national average rather than guessed at

Was anyone there at the end?

Hospice is judged on the last few days more than anything else. These are this provider's numbers against the national average.

Patients who had a visit close to death99%
Nurse minutes per routine home care day19.3 min
National average 20.1 minBelow average

What bereaved families said

CMS has not published survey results for this hospice. It only reports them once enough family caregivers have completed the questionnaire, so smaller providers often have none. That is a gap in the data, not a mark against the provider, ask them directly whether they run their own bereavement survey and what it showed.

Where they provide care

  • In an assisted living facility 40%
  • In a skilled nursing facility 33%
  • In their own home 27%

Who they care for

Main diagnosis of their patients.

  • Cancer 24%
  • Heart and circulatory disease 24%
  • Other conditions 22%
  • Dementia 19%

Other hospices nearby

Questions families ask about Headwaters Hospice And Palliative Care, Llc

Does Headwaters Hospice And Palliative Care, Llc cost anything?
No. If the patient has Medicare Part A and a doctor certifies a life expectancy of six months or less, the Medicare Hospice Benefit pays Headwaters Hospice And Palliative Care, Llc directly for visits, nursing, equipment and medicines related to the terminal illness. The family is not billed for those and no hospice may ask for a deposit.
What do families say about Headwaters Hospice And Palliative Care, Llc?
In the CMS-run survey of bereaved family caregivers, results were published and 80% of families said they would definitely recommend it. The survey is sent by CMS, not by the hospice, and the hospice cannot choose who is asked.
How is Headwaters Hospice And Palliative Care, Llc graded?
ElderGrade grades it D, below average, scoring 52 out of 100 on the federal hospice record: what bereaved families reported, visits in the last days of life, nurse time per home care day, live-discharge patterns and admission screenings. We take no payment from hospices.
Where does Headwaters Hospice And Palliative Care, Llc provide care?
Most of this hospice's care is delivered in an assisted living facility, 40% of its patients. Hospice is a service rather than a place, so the team travels to wherever the patient is living.

Source: CMS Hospice Provider Data (10/01/2024 - 09/30/2025) and the CAHPS Hospice Survey (10/01/2023-09/30/2025), published by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. ElderGrade takes no payment from hospices, chains or placement agencies, and holds no photographs of this provider. Graded 3 November 2026. How we source our data.