Obama urged to stop Medicare hospice cuts

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 25 (UPI) -- U.S. hospice providers are urging President Barack Obama to stop cuts to the nation's Medicare hospice benefits.

In a letter to the president, 3,524 warned Obama the budget cuts could leave an estimated 1.5 million patients and their family caregivers without hospice care, the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization said Thursday in a release.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services also received comments from more than 500 of the providers offering specific details regarding how the cuts would impact hospice efforts.

The letter and comments come after 45 senators and 171 representatives informed Obama they support a freeze of hospice budget cuts.

NHPCO President J. Donald Schumacher said the letter to Obama should indicate how prevalent opposition to the hospice cuts is in the United States.

"The sheer number of hospice programs represented by this letter and those recently sent by Members of Congress should send a strong message to the White House about the urgency in stopping these cuts," he said.