Health knowledge made personal
 Stone and his co-author, Joshua Perry, J.D., M.T.S., contend that these practices put non-profit hospices' financial survival at risk. The study also highlights questionable marketing practices used by for-profit hospices. One tactic involves sending representatives into nursing homes and giving residents branded gifts. Another is paying nursing home employees for future hospice referrals. In another study, Dr. Melissa Wachterman, a general medicine research fellow, and a palliative care physician at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston., found that non-cancer diagnoses were more common in for-profit hospices. And, since hospice is paid a flat rate, they make a profit on these patients. She did find that patients' care needs were met in both for-profit and non-profit hospice programs. Her study appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Dr. Joan Teno, a member of the board of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, in speaking with Health Day News said that the notion that dementia patients might need less care than cancer patients, particularly in the area of pain management is not true. As a consumer, you may not notice because the care for a loved one is probably paid for by insurance. The ultimate question is whether or not quality care is being compromised. At least one study suggests that it is not. What do you think? Reprinted in part from my about.com blog of the same topic. |
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