Medicare tests a solution to soaring hospice costs: Let private insurers run it

Hospice provides vital end-of-life support and palliative care to terminally ill patients. But it's costing Medicare billions. A new approach would eliminate waste in the program. (Westend61/Getty Images)

Hospice doctor Bethany Snider sees the writing on the wall: "The hospice care we've known and loved won't be the same 10 years from now."

Hosparus Health, the Louisville-based hospice agency where Snider serves as chief medical officer, is one of more than 100 provider organizations partnering with some of the country's largest health insurers on a federal experiment that could transform hospice care for millions of people.