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For-Profit Hospice Controversy

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http://media.soundmedicine.org/segments/030914_2.mp3

According to Medicare guidelines, patients enrolled in hospice care receive funding for only six months of end-of-life care. Many for-profit hospices have been accused of enrolling patients who are not dying and then discharging them after six months when Medicare stops paying. Melissa Aldridge, Ph.D., joins "Sound Medicine" to discuss nonprofit hospice care and for-profit hospice care. Dr. Aldridge is an associate professor of geriatrics and palliative medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.