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Hospice is for people expected to die within six months. When patients leave alive in unusual numbers, it is sometimes good news and sometimes a warning. The published data lets you tell the difference — if you read it alongside the rest.
Several reasons, and they are not equivalent:
Only the aggregate rate is published, not the reason mix. That is why the number is a question, not a verdict.
Both are components of the Hospice Care Index, and both appear on every hospice page on this site:
Of the 5,326 hospices with a published early live-discharge rate, 234 report 20% or higher. That is a starting point for questions, not an accusation against any of them.
A live-discharge rate on its own explains very little. Put it beside:
Then look at burdensome transitions: patients moved between hospice, hospital and nursing facility near the end of life. Those transfers are hard on patients and are measured for that reason.
Hospice has drawn regulatory and journalistic attention partly because of who has been buying providers. CMS asks owners to classify themselves on enrolment forms, and those checkboxes are public. Among hospice ownership groups running two or more providers, 82 include an owner that identified as a private equity company; the equivalent figure for home health is 86.
That is a disclosure, not a finding — plenty of well-run providers have institutional owners. But an owner's record across every provider it runs is more informative than any single location, and Medicare's Care Compare does not present it that way. Ownership group records are here.
Concerns about a specific hospice go to the state survey agency, which investigates complaints and whose findings become public record. Suspected billing fraud goes to the HHS Office of Inspector General hotline. Both are free, and both generate records that help the next family.
For choosing rather than reporting, start with the provider records by state.
No. Patients legitimately leave hospice alive when they improve or choose to resume treatment. A high rate is a reason to ask the provider how its enrolment and discharge decisions are made, not a finding of wrongdoing.
There is no official threshold that separates acceptable from unacceptable. CMS scores each hospice against national distributions inside the Hospice Care Index. Compare a provider with others in the same state rather than against an absolute number.
Medicare claims, published by CMS in the Hospice Provider Data file as components of the Hospice Care Index. Every figure on our provider pages is reproduced from that file with the release date shown.
No. CMS publishes the rates, not the reason mix behind them. That limitation is why we present the number as a question to ask the provider.
Records for 14,690 nursing homes, 5,597 assisted living facilities and 28,152 hospice, home health, dialysis and rehabilitation providers: search by name or city · nursing homes · hospice · home health · dialysis · inpatient rehab · nursing home groups · other ownership groups.
This guide is general information from public sources, not medical, legal, or financial advice. Program rules and dollar figures change annually and vary by state — verify with Medicare.gov, your state Medicaid agency, or a certified elder law attorney before acting.