VBMC looks to form hospice partnership

HARLINGEN - Valley Baptist Health System is "in discussions" to form a partnership between its nonprofit Sandi Jo Funk Hospice and a for-profit hospice provider, hospital officials have confirmed.

The for-profit company, Odyssey Healthcare Inc., is the largest provider of hospice services in the country, with 100 hospice programs in 29 states. The company has offices in Brownsville and McAllen, and serves the entire Rio Grande Valley region, confirmed Laurie Pitts, general manager of the Brownsville program.

The Dallas-based company has faced controversy in recent years. In 2006, Odyssey had to pay a $12.9 million settlement to the federal government on allegations of Medicare fraud, according to a U.S. Department of Justice statement.

In May, the company disclosed in its quarterly report that the Texas Attorney General's Office is investigating the company's Medicaid services.

A current employee at Sandi Jo Funk Hospice, and former employee at Odyssey, is worried that the partnership could undermine the quality of care at the nonprofit hospice.

"It would change the values of our faith-based organization," said Dan Martin, a registered nurse and case manager at Sandi Jo Funk Hospice. "Instead, we'd be turning over this service to corporate greed, and that's not good for our community."

Martin and other employees learned of the possible partnership last week at a staff meeting.

While he worked at Odyssey, Martin said he noticed the company treated uninsured patients differently than patients on Medicare, Medicaid or private insurance. Uninsured patients didn't receive as many services, he said.

"They don't serve nearly the charity-care patients we do ... here (at Sandi Jo Funk), we're truly blind to the payer source of the patient. We treat everyone the same," Martin said.

Pitts said it's "absolutely not true" that the company treats the uninsured differently.

"We serve many unfunded patients, and they are treated exactly the same in every single aspect," Pitts said.

Hospice programs offer "palliative care," an emphasis on making the patient comfortable rather than treating a disease. Hospice patients are terminally ill, and a team of health care providers attends to their needs, often at home.

Sandi Jo Funk is one of a handful of nonprofit hospice programs in the Rio Grande Valley, and serves Cameron, Hidalgo and Willacy counties.

Negotiations with Odyssey are still very preliminary, said Teri Retana, Valley Baptist spokeswoman.

"It's not concrete ... it might be several weeks before (the administration) makes a decision on whether it will happen or not," Retana said.