Should Patients Near the End of Life Stop Taking Cholesterol Medicine?
There is increasing awareness that patients nearing the end of life should take fewer medications.1 Older patients often regularly take…
Doctors May Be Underbilling for Advance Care Planning. Why That Matters to Patients.
Various review boards have described advance care planning as a critical component of healthcare for people with a serious illness.1,2…
Racial Disparities in End-Of-Life Conversations
End-of-Life conversations between a patient and a healthcare provider or social worker (also known as advanced care planning) have been…
Advanced Care Planning More Than Doubles Hospice Utilization
Various review boards have described advance care planning as a critical component of high-quality healthcare for people with a potentially…
Why Would a Hospice Patient Want Rehabilitation?
It may sound paradoxical, but physical therapy and other rehab can be an important part of hospice services. People in…
Managing Care for a Friend or Loved One Who is Not Your Spouse
The legal, financial, and healthcare systems have built-in rights for spouses and next of kin. However, many people late in…
Who Steals Meds from Hospice Patients?
According to a survey of 371 hospice providers published in February’s Journal of the American Medical Association, family caregivers, relatives,…
New Report: What Percentage of Americans Receive Hospice?
A report just published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society estimates that every day in America roughly 2,700…
More Americans Dying at Home than in the Hospital for the First Time in at Least 50 Years
This past December, The New England Journal of Medicine published a report noting a historic shift in where Americans spend…
Why Are Heart Failure Patients More Likely to Discharge from Hospice Alive?
Medicare pays 100% for hospice if patients have a life expectancy of six months or less and they are not…
