(The Center Square) – The Nevada Legislature will decide on a hospice care bill that would regulate an industry that has seen a boom in care providers – along with allegations of elder abuse and greedy business practices.
Assemblymember Rebecca Edgeworth has proposed Assembly Bill 161 to oversee hospice care in Nevada and set more strict rules to ensure care for people at the end of their lives.
“ When I had family in hospice, I got to watch them and make sure I was an advocate for them,” said Dr. Edgeworth, the only practicing physician in the Assembly. “But there are hundreds of people in beds that have nobody to advocate for them. They’re just laying there. I mean, we have to do something, right?”
In 2020 Nevada had fewer than 70 hospice care facilities. In 2025, there are over 270 licensed facilities.
With a growing state population, some increase could be expected. But Edgeworth and the hospice care centers that support AB 161 argue the growth is a symptom of a different issue.
“ There was a moratorium put on hospices and a crackdown in California, so a bunch of the flimflam artists came and poured into Nevada to take advantage of people,” said Edgeworth. “ They’re going around these regulatory loopholes and not reporting like they should. They’re not providing the care that they’re supposed to.”
The CEO of Nathan Adelson, the oldest and only nonprofit hospice in Southern Nevada, described scenes of patient abuse Wednesday during an Assembly Committee on Health and Human Services hearing for the bill. In one, an elderly patient had been sent to an emergency room after recording a high fever, where it was found that under hospice at-home services, he had been living in an unlivable house with feces and a rat infestation.
“ Caring for people who are dying has become a big business, and we should not let greed dictate care that vulnerable patients receive,” said Karen Rubel, the Nathan Adelson president and CEO. “ This is not about competition. I believe that competition keeps us on our toes. We invite competition … These hospice providers cannot even deliver the basic level of hospice care for patients.”
Edgeworth said the goal of the bill is not to shut hospices out of business, but to ensure they follow regulations and provide decent care.
For more information, Edgeworth recommends going to choosinghospice.org.
