Researchers raise concerns about the financial sector’s rising role in US illness care

The authors of a new article in Journal of Palliative Medicine state that the “growing role of the financial sector in home health and hospice, a reflection of larger trends in U.S. health care, is concerning and has major implications for care quality unless reforms are undertaken.”

Co-authors Lauren Hunt, Ph.D., RN, FN, with the University of California, San Francisco, and R. Sean Morrison, MD, with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, observe that home health and hospice began as nonprofit organizations with close ties to their communities. However, the overwhelming majority are now for-profit entities, many of which have become targets for private equity buyouts.

The authors note that “big business’s emphasis on maximizing profit can be at odds with patient welfare. Indeed, a substantial body of evidence now demonstrates that care quality is consistently worse in for-profits as compared to nonprofits,” they state.

The authors further express concern that “pressure to achieve high returns on very short-term time horizons may conflict with the need for longer-term investments in quality, training, and staffing, thus reducing care quality.

“The changing landscape of home health and hospice ownership demands both research to understand the impact of these trends on the care of seriously ill older adults and urgent regulatory response,” the authors conclude.