Facing facts: The impact of the face-to-face requirement

摘要

The hospice industry has grown significantly since the inception of the Medicare Hospice Benefit in 1983, such that 1.58 million people received hospice care in the United States in 2010. The growth reflects improved hospice access for those with non-oncologic diseases and the growing population of older Americans. Despite this growth, most Americans access hospice care very late, with consistent trends toward shorter length of service over the last five years. The median length of hospice service has hovered around three weeks, trending downward from 21 days in 2008 to 19 days in 2010. The population of "short stay patients" has grown substantially, with 35% of patients dying within a week and 49% dying within two weeks of admission to hospice.