“Medicare rules create a booming business in hospice care for people who aren’t dying”

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There’s a good article in yesterday’s Washington Post about the financial incentives for for-profit hospice agencies.

Here are key excerpts:

  • “In 2011, nearly 60 percent of Medicare’s hospice expenditure of $13.8 billion went toward patients who stay on hospice care longer than six months, MedPAC, the Medicare watchdog group created by Congress, has reported.”
  • “But much of the data suggests that the trend toward longer stays is a response to the financial incentive.:
  • “Consider the difference between the nonprofit and for-profit hospices: While the average nonprofit serves a patient for 69 days, the average for-profit hospice serves a patient for an average of 102 days, according to MedPAC.”

Here’s a link to the article:

www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/medicare-rules-create-a-booming-business-in-hospice-care-for-people-who-arent-dying/2013/12/26/4ff75bbe-68c9-11e3-ae56-22de072140a2_story.html

Economy
Medicare rules create a booming business in hospice care for people who aren’t dying
The Washington Post
By Peter Whoriskey and Dan Keating
December 26, 2013

Robin