For-Profit Hospice Care Centers Booming Financially

The idea of hospice care, when the focus shifts from keeping a person alive to making sure they pass away with a minimum of pain and maximum of comfort, has been increasing in popularity in recent years. But what started as a loose network of non-profits offering the service out of compassion has now turned into a massive money generator with many nationwide hospice chains becoming the dominant players.

This change has not been met with joy in all circles as the corporatization of death has lead to accusations of substandard care and fraud as companies stop at nothing to reach new clients. The problem, as the critics point out, is that Medicare pays for almost all hospice care at a flat rate which has encouraged companies to bring in patients that are relatively healthy in order to milk the daily rate. While the major hospice chains deny wrong doing, they have spent large amounts of money to settle court cases in recent years and are being investigated by the federal government. Recent changes have been proposed that would restrain the worst abuses of the system but, as of now, no new regulations have been formally issued.

See Ben Hallman & Nicky Forster, The Business Of Dying Has Never Been More Lucrative, Huffpost Business, July 24, 2015.