Has anyone ever felt like hospice is trying to get the patient to die sooner than they should?

Its not in the interests of a hospice to hasten a death when you think about it because they get reimbursed at a daily rate, so if the patient dies too early that reimbursement (read revenue stream) will cease. What hospices do is what I have heard described as allowing a natural death. Simply put, when curative medicine is no longer working or appropriate then the palliative care on managing symptoms and ensuring comfort are paramount. The data seems to suggest that the life expectancy is about the same, or marginally higher for the hospice patient, but there is no clear causal evidence that I can see. My experience with hospice is that their focus is not on promoting early death, but the natural death that most of us would prefer

Our experience with hospice with my MIL was wonderful. She was in a free-standing hospice after discharge from a hospital stay and before that she was in a NH. She died within a couple of weeks into hospice. My mom is in a NH for a couple of years now and is not on hospice as she medically is not at that level (she was evaluated for hospice in 2011 after a brief hospitalization). I've found the evaluation process for hospice is not taken lightly and if they qualify, then the reality is they are terminal and sooner rather than later. I think that for many the reality that in order to be in hospice is to recognize that they or their family member is terminal is hard to accept. There often seems to be alot of second guessing of what hospice is or (more likely) isn't doing as many do not understand what palliative care means. Hospice - which is paid for by Medicare - is all about palliative care only and anything that promotes cure cannot be done in order to be within compliance for Medicare.

Hospice is an option. It is not required that the elder participate. It may not be the best fit for you & your family if you all have strong feelings about doing everything medically for the person at all costs and up until the end.

if you google up hospice horror stories youll find a lot of wild allegations but many of them seem emotionally overcharged and baseless. i do believe that hospice would jump at the chance to institutionalize your loved one. there are government accounts of AL and NH making sweetheart deals with hospice providers. like anyone hospice will push around the meek. stay firmly in control of your home and patient.