As more hospices enroll patients who aren’t dying, questions about lethal doses arise

Aging in America As more hospices enroll patients who aren’t dying, questions about lethal doses arise The hospice industry is booming, but concerns are rising about treatments for patients who aren't near death. More By Peter Whoriskey August 21 Follow @PeterWhoriskey Jeff Coffey seen here near Riverview Baptist Church where his father, Clinard “Bud” Coffey, attended church growing up. A love for sports was a tight bond between Jeff and his father, and he is wearing a Carolina Panthers jersey he gave to his father years before he passed away. (Photo by Jason Arthurs / For The Washington Post) This story is part of an ongoing WashPost series on the hospice industry in America. Read part 1, part 2, and part 3. MAIDEN, N.C. — Clinard “Bud” Coffey, 77, a retired corrections officer, did the crossword in The Charlotte Observer after breakfast every morning, pursued his hobby of drawing cartoons, talked seven or eight times a day to his son Jeff and, just two weeks before his death, told a pal that he still felt “like a teenager.” He did, however, have some chronic back pain, and in late March he was enrolled in hospice care “essentially for pain management,” his doctor said. Over a two week period, he received rising doses of morphine and other powerful drugs, grew sleepy and disoriented, and stopped breathing, dying peacefully at home, according to his family and medical records they provided. His death certificate, which was signed by the hospice doctor, listed the cause as “renal cell carcinoma” or kidney cancer. But that doctor had never examined Coffey, his family said, and medical records from just a few weeks earlier do not mention it. “My dad wasn’t dying of cancer,” said his son, Jeff Coffey. “Once he was on hospice, their answer for everything was more drugs. Everything we know about his death is consistent with an overdose.” An attorney for the hospice company, Curo Health, said it could not comment on the case without authorization from Coffey’s family. When Jeff Coffey authorized the company to comment, however, the attorney said that the company would not comment because the Coffey family had hired an attorney in preparation for a lawsuit. The hospice industry in the United States is booming and for good reason, many experts say. Hospice care can offer terminally ill patients a far better way to live out their dying days, and many vouch for its value.