Legacy Matters

Living Too Long

Since 1983, Medicare has paid for hospice care for people in their last six months of life, about $135 a day.

It worked quite well as long as most hospice patients were cancer patients who died pretty quickly once curative treatment stopped and only palliative care continued.

But now more patients are using hospice and those patients are living longer in hospice, often well past the 6 month limit.  Hospice payment has become one of the fastest growing components of Medicare with spending nearly tripled since 2000.

In Hospice Care, Longer Lives Mean Money Lost.

The federal government wants its money back,

Hundreds of hospice providers across the country are facing the catastrophic financial consequence of what would otherwise seem a positive development: their patients are living longer than expected.