A Kaiser survey compares views on end-of-life care in several countries.
Greater primary care physician involvement in end-of-life care appears to lead to less intensive resource use.
The Kaiser Family Foundation issues a brief on Medicare spending at end-of-life.
A study carried by JAMA finds that emotional support meetings did not help the families of critically ill patients.
A meta-review in the International Journal for Quality in Health Care confirms that much care provided near the end of a patient’s life does little good.
Arcadia Solutions has a very interesting visual look at the course of patients' health care near the end of life, revealing where people die and what kind of services they use in the last year of life.
http://arcadiasolutions.com/final-year-visualizing-end-life/?submissionGuid=f2a9e2be-0226-4bd2-9f72-99b4abac6348Research carried in Health Affairs describes four patterns of end-of-life health spending.
Research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association compares data across seven developed countries regarding care for cancer patients who are dying.
A report commissioned by MedPAC finds that increased use of hospice has not lowered spending at the end-of-life for Medicare beneficiaries.
Research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that Medicare beneficiaries who had poor prognosis for cancer and were treated in hospice had lower overall spending.
Doctors would seldom chose aggressive end-of-life care for themselves, although they often order it for patients, according to research in PLoS One. Almost all doctors have or would have advance directives declining resuscitation or other heroic measures.
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0098246An article in Health Affairs examines whether advance directives are associated with less aggressive end-of-life care for people with various forms of dementia.
A Journal of the American Medical Association article summarizing a Cochrane review of home palliative care finds that it increases the likelihood of dying at home and having fewer symptoms but cost-effectiveness is unclear.