The Medicare Hospice Benefit has served terminally ill persons and their families since 1983. The political and social development of this policy combined both humanitarian and cost-saving strategies. Although this federal hospice program has mainstreamed care of the terminally ill and provided multiple services, four major constraints of the benefit package are identified and explored. As the United States draws closer to health care reform, it is important that we analyze this policy before we devise new ways to care for the dying and their families.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.