Jul 26 2011
Bloomberg: Preparing Americans for Death Lets Hospices Neglect End of Life
As hospice care has evolved from its charitable roots into a $14 billion business run mostly for profit, patients ... and their families have paid a steep price, according to lawsuits and federal investigations. Providers have been accused of boosting their revenues with patients who aren't near death and not eligible for hospice — people healthy enough to live a long time with traditional medical care. In hospices, patients give up their rights to "curative" measures because they are presumed to be futile (Waldman, 7/22).
Earlier, related KHN News coverage: Growing Hospice Care Costs Bring Concerns About Misuse (Rau, 6/27).
This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente. |