Summary
People with dementia (PWD) make up more than half of the 1.7 million Medicare beneficiaries who receive hospice care each year and represent the fastest-growing group of hospice enrollees. Yet when the Medicare Hospice Benefit began in 1983, it was designed for people dying of cancer. Unlike cancer patients, PWD often experience long and unpredictable trajectories of decline. This huge shift has placed PWD at the center of policy debates about how to incentivize high-quality hospice care across all diseases and settings. Qualitative research shows that caregivers of PWD want and need additiona
