hospice

Mas Masumoto (left) and Shizuko Sugimoto in 2013.

National

A funeral home worker tracked down a family — and uncovered a decades-old secret

5:01am March 15, 2024

by Laura Kwerel

A worker at a funeral home managed to locate the family members of an ailing woman. She didn't realize she was uncovering a family secret that went back to the 1940s.

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Prisoner and patient Alton Batiste, 72, in Angola's nursing unit in 2017. The prison had to change some of its rules when it introduced hospice, allowing inmates to touch each other, for instance.

Health & Safety

Death and redemption in an American prison

7:17am February 19, 2024

by Markian Hawryluk

More than a quarter century after an inmate helped start a hospice program in one of the nation's most notorious prisons, he is trying to spread the idea.

Terminally ill hospice resident Evelyn Breuning, 91, right, sits with music therapist Jen Dunlap in her bed in August 2009 in Lakewood, Colo. The nonprofit hospice, the second oldest in the United States, accepts the terminally ill regardless of their ability to pay, although most residents are covered by Medicare.

Health & Safety

What is hospice care? 6 myths about this end-of-life option

1:52pm December 28, 2023

by Diba Mohtasham

Recently ex-President Jimmy Carter went into hospice, which often is for patients in the last stages of incurable diseases. Contrary to popular belief, starting hospice doesn't mean giving up on life.

Hospice provides vital end-of-life support and palliative care to terminally ill patients. But it's costing Medicare billions. A new approach would eliminate waste in the program.

Health & Safety

Medicare tests a solution to soaring hospice costs: Let private insurers run it

4:21pm April 13, 2023

The end-of-life benefit costs billions a year. A new approach aims to eliminate waste and weed out bad actors, while making the care more inviting to those who most need it.

When a dire disease strikes, it's easy to slip into war terms to describe the experience. But that sort of talk turns life into two outcomes: winning and losing. And that's not the way life works.

Health & Safety

Why 'lost their battle' with serious illness is the wrong thing to say

11:26am February 28, 2023

by Marc Silver

When a dire disease strikes, it's easy to slip into war terms to describe the experience. But that sort of talk turns life into two outcomes: winning and losing. And that's not the way life works.

Karen hugs Tony in his wheelchair on April 14, 2022. They now live in Burlington, Wash., and their mobile home no longer exists on the island. They are grateful to be together after being separated for long periods of time during the pandemic.

For two years, this Washington island has grappled with the long reach of COVID

2:38pm May 18, 2022

The virus hit Whidbey Island early in 2020, and photojournalist Lynn Johnson was there. A million deaths later, we return to see how the pandemic has subtly but indelibly altered life there forever.

André Lee, administrator and co-founder of Heart and Soul Hospice, stands with Keisha Mason, director of nursing, in front of their office building last week in Nashville, Tenn.

Health & Safety

Black-owned hospice seeks to bring greater ease in dying to Black families

5:07pm December 28, 2021

by Blake Farmer

Black patients and their families are less likely to sign up for end-of-life comfort care. To reach them, investors are starting hospice agencies run by people who look like the patients they serve.

The for-profit hospice industry has grown, allowing more Americans to die at home. But few family members realize that "hospice care" still means they'll do most of the physical and emotional work.

Health & Safety

Patients Want To Die At Home, But Home Hospice Care Can Be Tough On Families

11:07am January 21, 2020

by Blake Farmer

The for-profit hospice industry has grown, allowing more Americans to die at home. But few family members realize that "hospice care" still means they'll do most of the physical and emotional work.

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Dr. BJ Miller's new project, the Center for Dying and Living, is a website designed for people to share their stories related to living with illness, disability or loss, or their stories of caring for someone with those conditions.

After A Freak Accident, A Doctor Finds Insight Into 'Living Life And Facing Death'

10:03am December 04, 2019

by Terry Gross

In 1990, BJ Miller was hit with 11,000 volts of electricity. That accident took most of his limbs, but the event and his recovery inspired him to pursue a career as a palliative care physician.

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From 2012 through 2016, federal health inspectors cited 87% of U.S. hospices for deficiencies. And 20% had lapses serious enough to endanger patients, according to two new reports from the HHS Inspector General's Office.

HHS Inspector General Finds Serious Flaws In 20% Of U.S. Hospice Programs

1:48pm July 09, 2019

by Ina Jaffe

Two new reports from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have found widespread problems in hospice care and say the government needs to open its scorecards on hospice care to the public.

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