The New Hospice Conditions of Participation: Meeting the Challenge,Keeping the Values

Abstract

What began as a volunteer movement in the early 1970s, built upon a vision and a set of passionately felt values, is being transformed in the late 1990s into an industry. The movement was called hospice and the vision was for the terminally ill to die well, at home, with dignity and comfort. New conditions of participation (COP), currently being written by the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), will challenge the hospice industry to meet its obligations as a significant provider of services in the mainstream of an increasingly sophisticated, competitive, and complex health care delivery system.