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According to Medicare requirements, patients enrolled in hospice must be certified as terminally ill, with life expectancy of “6 months or less if the illness runs its normal course.” But some hospice patients are discharged from hospice while they are still alive. In this study from a New York City nonprofit hospice organization, researchers examined live discharges from home hospice between 2013 and 2015.
Among 9200 patients, 79% died in hospice. The remaining 21% were discharged alive and categorized as follows:
Hospice revoked because patient dialed 911 and was admitted to an acute-care hospital (42%)
Patient revoked hospice to resume “disease-directed treatments without acute hospitalization” (18%)
Patient no longer certified as terminally…