Medicare Tests a Solution to Soaring Hospice Costs: Let Private Insurers Run It

April 14, 2023

(NPR) – Research shows hospice can reduce unwanted medical interventions, improve families’ satisfaction and, in some cases, save Medicare thousands of dollars. Now Snider and others believe this popular benefit, whose structure has remained largely unchanged since its debut in 1983, is in the early days of an inexorable overhaul. Critical aspects of the 40-year-old policy no longer fit the needs of the people using the service — or the providers delivering it. Concerns about access, fraud and runaway costs, which topped $20 billion in 2019, dog the program. (Read More)