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Boston Globe

A proposal to remove hospice providers from a state review poses a threat to patient care

Get Rhode Island News Alerts Sign up to get breaking news and interesting stories from Rhode Island in your inbox each weekday. Enter Email Sign Up The CON process isn't one of the flashier, public-facing functions of state government, but it has a direct impact on the quality of health and hospice care that Rhode Islanders receive throughout their lives. Advertisement The CON process is used to determine the need for a particular health care service and to ensure that providers entering Rhode Island are prepared and equipped to provide the highest quality, most ethical care before receiving a license. Exempting hospice from meeting the rigorous standards that a CON requires poses an immediate threat to the quality of patient care. Advertisement In fact, extensive In the last decade, profit-driven private equity firms have spent more than Recently, based on increased reports of hospice fraud, waste and abuse, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced All of this is a warning for Rhode Island. To roll back Certificate of Need requirements for hospice providers exposes vulnerable Rhode Islanders to the whims of anonymous, for-profit operators who put profit first, and patient care a distant second. Research has demonstrated that states with CON requirements have much higher quality of hospice care. When we opened in 1976, HopeHealth was only the second hospice in the United States. As the leader of this nonprofit organization, I can tell you that this work is not about maximizing profits. It's a calling. On behalf of our patients, their families, and our employees, we strongly urge the General Assembly not to weaken Rhode Island's Certificate of Need process. Instead, we should recommit to maintaining the high-quality hospice system that provides a level of care that Rhode Islanders have come to expect — and deserve — from their hospice providers by keeping hospice in CON. Advertisement Diana Franchitto is the president and CEO of HopeHealth Hospice & Palliative Care.