Good hospice can be immensely valuable. But there are predators.

A wise friend referred me to this New Yorker article last month about a Pro Publica investigation. I skimmed it then, and today I read it in full. It’s appalling. If anyone you know is considering hospice, or has been “invited” by a company to consider it, beware. Here’s what the friend basically said – and they were right:

For-profit hospice is a vast crime scene,
and private equity is holding the knife

Note, I’m talking (and the article talks) about for-profit hospice companies. For-profit hospice chains bill the government four times more per patient than not-for-profits, and focus on both maximizing admissions and cutting costs (i.e. cutting back on services), all the while gaming the system to barely squeak under the wire before Medicare makes them give back the money.

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