The terrible choice: re-evaluating hospice eligibility criteria for cancer.
OBJECTIVE
To be eligible for the Medicare Hospice Benefit, cancer patients with a life expectancy of 6 months or less must give up curative treatment. Our goal was to determine whether willingness to make this choice identifies patients with greater need for hospice services.


METHODS
Three hundred patients with cancer and 171 family members were recruited from six oncology practices. Respondents completed conjoint interviews in which their perceived need for five hospice services was calculated from the choices they made among combinations of services. Patients' preferences for treatment were measured, and patients were followed for 6 months or until death.


RESULTS
Thirty-eight patients (13%) said they would not want cancer treatment even if it offered an almost 100% chance of 6-month survival. These patients, who would have been eligible for hospice, did not have greater perceived need for hospice services compared with other patients (n = 262; mean, 1.75 v 1.98; Wilcoxon rank sum test, P = .46), nor did their family members (mean, 1.95 v 2.04; Wilcoxon rank sum test, P = .80). Instead, independent predictors of patients' perceived need for hospice services included African American ethnicity, less social support, worse functional status, and a greater burden of psychological symptoms. For families, predictors included caregiver burden, worse self-reported health, working outside the home, and caring for a patient with worse functional status.


CONCLUSIONS
The requirement that patients forgo life-sustaining treatment does not identify patients with greater perceived need for hospice services. Other characteristics offer a better way to identify the patients who are most likely to benefit from hospice.
Casarett
David J
DJ
Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion, Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA. casarett@mail.med.upenn.edu
Fishman
Jessica M
JM
Lu
Hien L
HL
O'Dwyer
Peter J
PJ
Barg
Frances K
FK
Naylor
Mary D
MD
Asch
David A
DA
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001293:Attitude to Death; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003657:Decision Making; D004608:Eligibility Determination; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D017051:Hospice Care / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D006278:Medicare; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D018579:Patient Selection; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult