A medical campus that once made history is renewing calls for better patient care.
Hospice and Palliative Care Buffalo, a non-profit, opened the first combined residential and in-patient hospice campus in the United States 30 years ago. On Thursday, workers at this campus gathered to call on Governor Kathy Hochul to sign legislation preventing for-profit hospices from growing or opening until better patient safeguards are in place.
Jeanne Chirico, the president of the Hospice and Palliative Care Association of New York State, says the bill is important because studies have shown issues with care in for-profit hospices.
"The bill is simple but powerful. It would prohibit the state from approving new for-profit hospice programs until stronger oversight and consumer protections are in place," Chirico said. "Why is that important? Because evidence from across the country has shown us what happens when hospice becomes a business model instead of a mission."
One 2023 study in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, showed that caregivers of patients receiving hospice care reported “substantially worse care experiences in for-profit than in not-for-profit hospices.” The bill has passed the state Senate and Assembly and now awaits the governor’s signature.
"It [the bill] prevents the exploitation, fraud and workforce bidding wars we've seen in other states," Chirico said. "For-profit hospices have been shown to provide less services, use less clinical staff. They admit fewer critically ill patients, and cherry pick those patients who can provide longer lengths of stay and require less care in the home."
The bill comes amidst rising concern over the past several years with the privatization of health care, especially by private equity and publicly traded companies that purchase or own large health systems.
A 2024 research letter published in the journal JAMA found that hospices owned by private-equity firms and publicly traded companies “performed significantly worse” across consumer assessment data measures than non-profits and other types of for-profit agencies.
