Hospice is not founded to grant therapy and health giving measures, they are FOUNDED to help terminally ill people DIE NATURALLY and are FORBIDDEN from hastening DEATH!
Read this from our Inspector General:
"Hospice that enrolls Non-Terminal Patients Commits Fraud"
"The United States Office of Inspector General has issued its warning to the public about questionable hospice agency practices and stated that some hospices have been found to engage in, "practices which ... have inappropriately maximized their Medicare reimbursements at beneficiary expense. These practices include: Making incorrect determinations of a person’s life expectancy for purposes of meeting hospice eligibility criteria." A hospice that bills Medicare, Medicaid or a private insurer for a non-terminal patient is violating the contracts which allow hospices to provide services for the terminally ill."
"Hospices are not licensed to care for the chronically ill. In order for a patient to be admitted to hospice, the physician must "certify" that the patient is likely to die within six months due to a terminal illness. Terri Schiavo has no terminal illness; the only cause of death in her case would be her intentional murder by those intent on ending her life."
"Original Hospice Mission Violated"
"The original hospice mission is to care for, support and manage the symptoms of the terminally ill until a death occurs in its own natural timing. Every hospice nurse and physician knows that hospice is supposed to neither hasten death nor seek to cure the terminal illness. Hastening the death of a patient goes against everything hospice stands for. "
"Although Terri Schiavo's case will be decided in a Pinellas County courthouse, any hospice that accepts a chronically ill patient has violated not only the spirit of hospice and the mission of hospice, but the **federal regulations** governing hospice."
"Read the entire article. There's much more:"
"http://www.hospicepatients.org/terri-schiavo-10-12-02-press-rel.html "
Mae and Terri would not have suffered nearly as much as they did, especially Terri, who was actually murdered by a hospice who HASTENED HER DEATH, which is AGAINST the Hospice foundation LAW, had the HOSPICE's involved NOT BROKEN THEIR OWN FOUNDATIONAL LAWS and refused to admit them. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ rules.
I don't disagree that hospice that runs afoul of Medicare/Medicade regulations runs the ris of forfeiting federal money. But that is the only "illegality," i.e., billing the fedgov on false pretenses. The killing itself is not illegal.