Though beloved as a service, hospice can be a difficult subject for patients, families, and even caregivers. The recent short film, End Game (2018 NetFlix), follows a set of patients, families, and their caregivers through the difficult discussions and choices faced at end of life. It may help facilitate difficult discussions.

End Game provides a glimpse of hospice services at San Francisco-based UCSF Hospital and its affiliated Zen Hospice Project, an end-of-life urban end-of-life residence home. The film follows four patients and their families through different stages of end-of-life decision making, directly addressing the grief, conflict, and uncertainty surrounding death. Continue Reading

Update. We described in a previous blog post major changes that tax-exempt hospitals and other tax-exempt organizations in the healthcare industry face in the tax reform proposals working their way through Congress. In the early hours of Saturday, December 2, 2017, the Senate narrowly passed its tax reform bill. Although the Senate’s bill has much in common with the bill passed by the House of Representatives, there are significant differences. Accordingly, the House voted yesterday, December 4, 2017, to proceed with a conference committee to reconcile the two bills. A reconciled bill would still need to be approved by both the House and Senate. The Republicans are pushing hard to enact a final bill before year end. Continue Reading