The potential cost savings of hospice care: a review of the literature.

Virtually every study comparing the costs of hospice and conventional care provided to dying patients has reported substantial savings for hospice care. Yet despite these findings, third-party insurers have not enthusiastically supported this mode of palliative care. To understand why the cost-effectiveness of hospice care is still being questioned, the major findings of nine studies are reviewed in this article. Although the literature shows that hospice costs are much lower than those of hospital care, there is negligible evidence that great savings are achieved by substituting home care visits for hospital days. Third parties tend to view hospice care, therefore, as an "add-on" service.