So, anyone here had family members use hospice care?
Half of all Americans now die in hospice care. Easy money and a lack of regulation transformed a crusade to provide death with dignity into an industry rife with fraud and exploitation.
www.propublica.org
My dad did and while his experience was good, my mother did 10 years later and it was horrible. The article above is long, but is very interesting.
I had no idea no license was needed to start a hospice care unit.
We did this with my mother for her last days earlier this year.
She had lung cancer that was diagnosed August 2021 and she did chemo and immunotherapy from 9/21 to 1/22.
The tumor got smaller under the chemo, but I think the immunotherapy that continued when the chemo was paused did her in.
Long story short, she was down to ~75 pounds and we brought her home for hospice care.
My sister and I took turns as her oncologist thought she had two to six weeks left.
She passed on 3/14, almost 4 weeks from the time she came home.
I saw someone else had this going for months. I don't think we could have done it for months. But for that time period, we were able to manage.
We had twice weekly visits by the hospice nurse and a similar frequency for the home health aide.
I was glad we were able to give mom a death with dignity, surrounded by her family and in a familiar place.
I don't know what they charged Mom's insurance, but everything was provided for us to care for mom in her home.
I don't think out case was run by an outfit described in the story. The nurse was a high school classmate of mine, and someone who I wouldn't expect to be involved in a scam. The doctor was a fellow church member from the church I grew up in back in the day. She was given good care and seen 4 out of every 7 days by a trained professional.