Here we have yet another example of how our health care delivery system is being used to benefit large corporations, not individual lives. If we as a country do not recognize that our system is deeply flawed in this regard, we will continue to maintain one of the most costly yet ineffective health care systems in the world.
This article illustrates how we have a growing industry, hospice care, and how it is being exploited by corporations that do not have the best interests of the people and the families they serve at heart. Their priority seems to be making money by collecting Medicare payments on behalf of our sick and dying population.
This is not to say that agencies that provide hospice care are not an extremely valuable part of caring for a dying person. Quite the contrary, hospice can be a source of guiding light and a strong helping hand at a critical time in one’s life. Hospice workers certainly deserve to be paid for their work.
The question as always is this: who determines who is eligible to receive hospice care paid for by our Medicare system? If we leave that determination solely up to the agencies providing care and do not make a place at that table for objective criteria delivered by non-partial professionals, then we are just asking for abuse.
Read the full article here.