Well, if you die at home, it’s harder for Private Equity to take their cut.
{{ Hospice care usually takes place at home. Medicare, which covers most hospice care, pays agencies around $200 daily per patient for drugs, medical equipment and visits from hospice staff. Since agencies collect this fee regardless of what they spend, for-profit hospices have proliferated and have been found to provide worse care than their nonprofit counterparts. }}
intercst
Most people prefer to die at home when they can. Hospitals are institutions. Home is better.
Not really.
For profit hospice care still usually happens in the home. Dyeing at home vs a hospital doesn’t insulate someone from private equity. Many/most hospice care companies are also for-profit.
From 2020:
Care Experiences Are Worse in For-Profit Hospices Than in Not-for-Profit Hospices | RAND.
The proportion of hospices that are for-profit increased from 30% of all hospices in 2000 to 73% in 2020.
The crux of good hospice care is not the stuff that costs money, but rather the stuff that takes thought love and advanced planning. The AIDS epidemic turned me into an expert on everything from breaking people trapped in hospitals out to go home to die, to detailed knowledge on how to turn, clean, and comfort persons of all sizes and maladies whilst they are bedridden and suffering the normal squalid vicissitudes of physical death…
You DO need expert knowledgable nursing, but usually not much. You do Do DO need multiple sets of strong arms and kind persons in support to do the needed labor that allows death to come as a friend rather than a horror.
Family and friends can do it if they are prepared. Mostly you need a lot of talking and mutual honest comprehension between the person dying and the people in loving support well in advance and at each stage along the way.
One size does NOT fit all.
There are superb non-profit hospices out there. They are worth studying and, if possible, forming a relationship with, visiting and learning.
d fb
2020 is not 2024.
There was a rush to the exits in 2020.
Dr Atul Gawande published “Being Mortal” in 2014.
Here’s a 2020 Frontline on it.
Part of the “history” outlined in the book, IIRC, describes the Eden Approach to end of life care.
A Guide to the Eden Alternative® Approach to Senior Care | Oaks.
ralph
Many people give up on their New Year’s resolutions within the first few weeks of the year, with some studies reporting that 88–92% of people fail. According to one survey, only 36% of people make it past the first month of January, and only 9% are successful in keeping their resolutions all year. The second Friday in January is known as “Quitter’s Day” and is when many people reportedly abandon their resolutions.
Ralph,
I was misled by how your video was introduced. I thought the discussion would be straightforward advice on better habits in keeping patients alive. Or drug treatments etc…that were successful.
When it was mentioned the patients do not hear…I thought about how people ignore their own health.
I never made a New Year’s resolution.
I quit 2 packs per day of cigarettes at age 26. I quit drinking after my quota at age 30. I have always exercised if not continuously most of the time. I have been able to lose weight.
You might think I’d be lonely because others are unsuccessful in these things. I am not lonely. I was lonely when I had my habits.
adding
Ralph, the story is about human struggle. The doctor’s professional struggle and the patient’s struggle.
The man in the farmhouse taught me something. His best weeks were his last. Perhaps happiness is often putting struggles into perspective. It is okay to struggle and take pride. When there is no real struggle, there is peace we should not take for granted.
This report might be useful. Certainly full of thoughts.
It’s sad that 50% of cancers are not accounted for. Lets you know this science is still in the dark ages. Avoid the known causes but the risk is still large.
ralph
thanks for the link to the superb video.
d fb