Here's one paragraph from the article you gave a link for. Pretty horrible. I am currently reading Elisabeth Kubler-Ross' last book, her autobiography. She becomes very angry at the "for profit" medical system, and got in hot water at one hospital for treating patients for free. People who worship capitalism as if it were God are wrong about some things. Capitalism is a better economic system (what to speak of political system) than communism, way better. But monetary profit is not the best motive for all human endeavors.
The article goes on to say that, "Andrew Parker of American Hospice Management said the for-profits will lead a necessary consolidation in the industry. A brochure from Parker's company states: "Hospice represents an excellent opportunity for providers in many areas of the country to enhance revenue, expand service profiles, and conserve resources." The key to making money in hospice is "volume, volume, volume," Parker says."
My fear is that poor Terri is their pre-planned precedent for that 'volume, volume, volume'.
One of the things that bothers me most about this case is that Terri being in hospice is a flagrant violation of both state and federal law. Hospice is by law, for the terminally ill. The passage I was going to post on another thread, if I can remember which one it was, is this:
"...And the article stated, "This Spring, the [U.S.] Inspector General issued a "special fraud alert," warning that some hospices are suspected of paying kickbacks to nursing homes in order "to influence the referral of patients." In October, a federal grand jury returned the first hospice fraud indictment by charging a Chicago man with bilking the federal government by collecting more than $10 million in Medicare reimbursements while providing less than $2 million in hospice services to patients." One man, "allegedly paid nursing homes $10 a day for each patient signed up for hospice benefits ***** with the assistance of compliant doctors who certified them as terminally ill without an examination." ...." [I'm wondering if that's how Terri got admitted, which means she was planned to be terminated. I don't know if Terri was put into hospice before or after the original death sentence was handed down. Anyone know?]
I think all Terri's records need to be subpoenaed. They are required to be kept for a period of time. I think it might have been 5 years.
Another interesting passage, and I'm not sure how it relates to Terri:
(j) Standard: Meal service, menu planning, and supervision. The
hospice must--
(1) Serve at least three meals or their equivalent each day at
regular times, with not more than 14 hours between a substantial evening
meal and breakfast;
(2) Procure, store, prepare, distribute, and serve all food under
sanitary conditions;
(3) Have a staff member trained or experienced in food management or
nutrition who is responsible for--
(i) Planning menus that meet the nutritional needs of each patient,
following the orders of the patient's physician and, to the extent
medically possible, the recommended dietary allowances of the Food and
Nutrition Board of the National Research Council, National Academy of
Sciences (Recommended Dietary Allowances (9th ed., 1981) is available
from the Printing and Publications Office, National Academy of Sciences,
Washington, DC 20418); and
[[Page 703]]
Here's the federal law if anyone is interested:
http://www.hospicepatients.org/law.html I think there's a lot of hear-no-evil, see-no-evil going on here.