Hospice COO was in a conference call with nurse, therapist & myself, without my knowledge. Is this wrong?

Thank you--and I have, I appreciate all the comments and perspectives. I am so stressed by all the lies and manipulation that it is tricky to be sure I am really seeing clearly at this point. Reading the paperwork definitely cleared a lot up too--right there in black and white.

This hospice is the only one in my area, but has 4 stars on Medicare.gov which meant it should have been good. It also has deemed status from the Joint Commission--which is supposed to mean that they've proven they take proper care. I think folks are just usually too upset and in the middle of a terrible crisis to see everything I've seen.

Thanks--The call was with a massage therapist who just wanted to clarify the services she'd be performing & how. They were unhappy that I kept pushing for physical and occupational therapy, only offered massage on a woman who has very little meat left on her bones to rub and very delicate skin. We did have a SW, who forgot 2 of our 4 appointments.

I did call Medicare and they are supposed to cover physical, occupational and speech therapy to do maintenance, prevent decline and get pain relief. They lied and said it is not covered.

Hospice is actually for the whole family, it is not just for the patient--even so, my mother did not get appropriate care. They are supposed to offer counseling to the family and patient if needed--I was clearly progressing down a bad path trying to get them to help her and was offered no real help. Probably because they knew they were causing my distress.

After reading the intake papers, she should have been recommended for simple home care and not hospice--another issue with what went down being wrong. (My mother is not disabled the way they described. She's very limited but fully self-cable of dressing, bathing and eating a meal--they said she could do none of those without major assistance.)

I asked for therapy to retain those functions.

This is a non profit and a monopoly in the area as far as options for hospice goes. I really am dumbfounded by what I've learned since I stopped relinquishing control to them and did some digging into what should and shouldn't be.

She has an MA plan, and when we opted for hospice, it took the back seat and Medicare handled the payments directly for all the hospice care, the MA plan was still available for other services (like eye glasses). Now that we are out of hospice, I am just looking for homecare for the housebound and will cross the next assistance bridge when we come to it.

Thank you--I am her sole caretaker & will double check what my POA encompasses. We were doing home hospice, and it's the sneakiness of how that call went--oh, we have nurse on the line today--left me thinking it was a 3 way call but it was a 4 way call.

Their paperwork says info might be shared w others in the company to for professional review, to check on quality, business management and cost management among other things.

As soon as the state DOH finishes their investigation (my first complaint to authorities, others to follow when I see the report in case they learn something I should include) I will follow up with a lawyer. I don't want to go in half-cocked--I want to be able to say that the DOH found fault or didn't--so they know where things stand before giving their professional advice.

Thanks--yes, they start at over $200 a day for the first 60 day and then get $160 after that for Level 1 care. She just had straight Medicare paying for hospice, but never dropped her advantage plan, luckily.

I will look into local officials, but hospice is such a special thing in most people's eyes, to criticize it is self-damning which politicians don't like to do. It will have to be a special politician who'd like not to be invited to the parties and fundraisers--and will stop giving the hospice giant grants every year if they get elected. And thing folks will still vote for them.

Thank you--I think they are denying appropriate services and have realized I am on to it, and put their guard up as early as one week in to a month long participation by bringing the COO in on phone meeting between the nurse and the doctor about my mother's care.