Home Health Care & Hospice in the Pocono's

Why Nonprofit versus For-profit Makes a Difference

On February 2, 2011 the Journal of the American Medical Assocation (JAMA) released a study documenting a pattern of “cherry picking” by for-profit hospice agencies. The study demonstrates an alarming tendency by for-profit hospices to operate in favor of profit over patient wellbeing.  

Patients needing more complex and expensive care tend to be shunned by the for-profits, resulting in reduced access to critically important services. The study tells us that the nation’s not-for-profit (nonprofit) hospices and home health agencies require sustaining. Were it not for nonprofit agencies like VNA/Hospice of Monroe County and the willingness to serve all patients regardless of their clinical needs or ability to pay, many patients would suffer needlessly.