Dying or Lying? For-Profit Hospices and End-of-Life Care
研究了营利性临终关怀机构对阿尔茨海默病和痴呆患者医疗支出的因果影响，发现其通过替代其他昂贵护理为医保节省了费用，而限制使用的政策可能适得其反。
The Medicare hospice program is intended to provide palliative care to terminal patients, but patients with long stays in hospice are highly profitable, motivating concerns about overuse among the Alzheimer's and Dementia (ADRD) population in the rapidly growing for-profit sector. We provide the first causal estimates of the effect of for-profit hospice on patient spending using the entry of for-profit hospices over 20 years. We find hospice has saved money for Medicare by offsetting other expensive care among ADRD patients. As a result, policies limiting hospice use including revenue caps and antifraud lawsuits are distortionary and deter potentially cost-saving admissions.