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More than a million times a year, a terminally ill patient in the United States is enrolled in hospice care. Each time, the family confronts a decision that, while critical, often must be made almost blindly: Which hospice to hire? A boom in the industry allows patients to choose from an array of hospice outfits, some of them excellent. More than a thousand new hospices have opened in the United States in the past decade. But the absence of public information about their quality, a void that is unusual even within the health-care industry, leaves consumers at a loss to distinguish the good from the bad. (Whoriskey and Keating, 10/26)

Family discussions that emphasize older parents’ independence and their desire to avoid being a burden to adult children could stimulate interest in buying long-term care insurance, researchers say. In focus groups with older adults and their middle-aged children, certain themes dominated parents’ decisions about whether or not to purchase coverage for themselves. Tapping into those themes could help families talk about aging parents’ needs and everyone’s expectations, according to the researchers. (Lehman, 10/24)