A new report from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Masking Mortality, finds that the largest hospital corporation in the country, HCA Healthcare, may be inappropriately transferring patients to hospice care to boost profits and executive compensation.
Available for interviews:
AMANDA CHISOLM; amanda.chisolm@617mediagroup.com, (617) 947-8854
Chisolm is account executive at 617MediaGroup and the SEIU press contact.
Analysis of Medicare claims data found that HCA hospitals have higher average rates of patient transfers to hospice than the national average. A press release from SEIU stated that HCA’s executive compensation is also “tied to the company’s in-hospital mortality rate. Executives earn bonuses if they reduce the rate of patients who die in HCA hospitals, creating a possible incentive to encourage the practice of quickly shifting seriously ill patients––and patients who are likely to die imminently––to hospice.”
Mary Kay Henry, president of SEIU, added: “In the last two years alone, HCA raked in $12.6 billion in profits and paid out $16 billion to shareholders… [T]hat HCA might also be boosting profits and executive compensation with questionable hospice practices is beyond troubling.”
The release of the report coincides with SEIU members’ call on regulators to investigate the corporation’s practices regarding patient discharges to hospice.