Joan Teno

Should You Enroll In A Medicare Advantage Plan?

It Is Medicare open-enrollment season. And retirees are confronting the usual confusion about what to do. Perhaps the biggest question: Should I enroll in a Medicare Advantage managed care plan or in traditional, fee-for-service Medicare? Like almost everything in the world of insurance, the answer is: It depends. In 2022, almost half of all Medicare beneficiaries were enrolled in MA [...]

By |2022-11-01T10:25:47-04:00November 1st, 2022|Medicare|0 Comments

Where Do Older Americans Die?

Increasingly, older Americans are likely to die at home, and not in a hospital. And more seniors are using hospice care as they near end of life. However, stubbornly large numbers of Medicare beneficiaries still land in intensive care units or find themselves shuttled from home to hospital and back again in their last months of life. A fascinating and [...]

By |2018-07-01T09:02:56-04:00July 1st, 2018|End of life|0 Comments

What’s Behind the Criticism of Hospice? Is It Fair?

Hospice is facing unprecedented public criticism. In recent months, The Washington Post has published at least four highly critical articles, alleging widespread instances of poor care and fraud. In June, The Huffington Post published a long investigative piece largely targeting the practices of the for-profit hospice operator  Vitas Healthcare Corp. What’s this about? How did a movement aimed at comforting the [...]

By |2014-09-11T17:37:44-04:00September 11th, 2014|End of life|8 Comments

More People are Dying at Home and in Hospice, But They are Also Getting More Intense Hospital Care

More people over 65 are dying in hospice care and fewer are dying in hospitals. But this good news is tempered by a very different story. People are also being hospitalized more frequently in the last three months of their lives, are more likely to spend time in intensive care units, and are often receiving hospice care for just a [...]

By |2013-02-06T19:49:40-05:00February 6th, 2013|Aging, End of life, Hospitals, nursing homes|0 Comments