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Journal Articles
Abstract:
Hospice care is designed to support patients and families through the final phase of illness and death. Yet for more than a decade, hospices have steadily increased the rate at which they discharge patients before death-a practice known as "live discharge." Although certain live discharges are consistent with high-quality care, regulators have expressed concern that some hospices' desire to maximize profits drives them to inappropriately discharge patients. We used Medicare claims data for 2012-13 and cost reports for 2011-13 to explore relationships between hospice-level financial margins and live discharge rates among freestanding hospices. Adjusted analyses showed positive and significant associations between both operating and total margins and hospice-level rates of live discharge: One-unit increases in operating and total margin were associated with increases of 3 percent and 4 percent in expected hospice-level live discharge rates, respectively. These findings suggest that additional research is needed to explore links between profitability and patient-centeredness in the Medicare hospice program.