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While acknowledging that changes must be made to the hospice industry, health policy researchers and providers worry that negative attention and the potential for overly punitive regulations could put patients at risk.
吃瓜不打烊 journalists made the rounds on national and local media recently to discuss topical stories. Here鈥檚 a collection of their appearances.
Correctional officers often dictate end-of-life care for incarcerated people who are terminally ill. Most states either don鈥檛 have a formal policy or are given leeway 鈥 a big concern for families and advocates, as the incarcerated population rapidly ages.
A state law establishes a list of representatives who can make medical decisions for patients unable to convey their wishes. California is late to making the change; 45 other states and the District of Columbia already have next-of-kin laws.
The proportion of Californians dying at home, rather than in a hospital or nursing home, accelerated during the pandemic, a trend that has outlasted the rigid lockdowns linked to the initial shift.
Why is it so hard to agree when life begins? As state abortion laws define it, science, politics, and religion are clashing. KHN鈥檚 Sarah Varney shared her reporting with the 鈥淪cience Friday鈥 radio program.
For decades, the U.S. medical establishment has adhered to a legally recognized standard for brain death, one embraced by most states. Why is a uniform clinical standard for the inception of human life proving so elusive?
Private equity firms are seeing opportunities for profit in hospice care, once the domain of nonprofit organizations. The investment companies are transforming the industry 鈥 and might be jeopardizing patient care 鈥 in the process.
National data shows that Black Medicare patients and their families are not making the move to comfort care as often as white patients are. Experts speculate it's related to spiritual beliefs and widespread mistrust in the medical system due to decades of discrimination.
Prominent researchers say the nationwide effort to get people to spell out how they want to be treated as they die is not improving patients鈥 care.
Nearly 2,000 terminally ill Californians have used a 2015 law to end their lives with a doctor鈥檚 assistance. A revision of the law will make it easier to do so.
When the covid pandemic hit, Dr. Rebecca Elon was thrust into a new role, primary caregiver for her severely ill husband and her elderly mother. 鈥淩eading about caregiving of this kind was one thing. Experiencing it was entirely different,鈥 she says.
Access to physician-assisted death is expanding across the U.S., but the procedure remains in Montana鈥檚 legal gray zone more than a decade after the state Supreme Court ruled physicians could use a dying patient鈥檚 consent as a defense.
A proposal in Washington state would use right-to-try laws to allow terminally ill patients access to psilocybin 鈥 the famed magic mushrooms of America鈥檚 psychedelic 鈥60s 鈥 to ease depression and anxiety.
Although the family patriarch did not face a life-threatening emergency, the episode was a reminder that you have to prepare for a real crisis.
New research suggests the pandemic鈥檚 deaths are taking an enormous toll on surviving family members and worrisome ripple effects may linger for years.
Attorneys say some state workers鈥 compensation laws leave workers and families struggling for benefits after a COVID illness or death.
For three years, staffers at UCLA Health have been quietly fulfilling final wishes for dying patients in the intensive care unit. Amid the isolating forces of the pandemic, their work has become all the more meaningful.
Not having an accurate, honest, nationwide way to tally COVID-19 cases will only add to the current tragedy.
One family took up the challenge of taking their mother, who had serious medical problems and the coronavirus, from the hospital to die at home. But because of the risk of infection, home hospice can be a daunting experience.
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