Dear friends,
I’m sharing a link to a story that appeared on November 28 in the New Yorker and on ProPublica, How Hospice Became a For-Profit Hustle.
The article describes how a growing number of bad actors in the field are exploiting the Medicare hospice benefit, to the detriment of all current and future hospice patients. Sadly, the fraud and abuse described in the article is not surprising to those of us working in the field.
California Hospice Network has been at the table for national conversations about profiteering and licensure abuse. These conversations have been galvanized by Assemblymember Irwin and Senator Allen’s groundbreaking legislation in California.
CHN members and our colleagues in nonprofit hospice care welcome a public dialogue about how to improve the Medicare benefit so that it encourages the kind of holistic, person-centered end-of-life care that our patients deserve.
We at CHN are working to ensure that all Californians have access to independent, community-based nonprofit hospices, which have offered patients and their families excellent, compassionate, ethical end-of-life care for more than four decades.
Regards,
Michael MilwardChief Executive Officer, California Hospice Network(209) 552-9902 