Research

The Impact of For-Profit Hospice Providers on End-of-Life Care for Prostate Cancer Decedents

Abstract: Since its inception in 1983, the Medicare hospice benefit has provided palliative and supportive care for patients and families near the end of life. The rapid growth of for-profit providers has raised concerns about how financial incentives influence care delivery and quality. Using SEER-Medicare data from 2008–2017, we examine the relationship between for-profit hospice enrollment and care outcomes among 63,926 prostate cancer decedents. To address selection bias, we apply a two-stage least squares instrumental variables approach, leveraging local for-profit hospice share as an instrument. Our estimates indicate that patients in for-profit hospices experience longer lengths of stay, but also higher rates of live discharge and burdensome care transitions in the final week of life. These results suggest that financial incentives may shape hospice practices in ways that complicate care coordination.  Link to Paper; Appendix 

Published Works 

Andria B. Eisman, Jacob Whitman, Christine Koffkey, Lawrence Palinkas, Judy Fridline, Christina Harvey, Amy Kilbourne, David Hutton. 2023. “A Mixed Methods Shareholder-Focused Cost Analysis to Deploy Implementation Strategies for School-Based Prevention.” (Implementation Science Communication)  Link 

Andria Eisman, Jacob Whitman, Suzanne Brown, Erica Richardson, Christina Holmes, Barry Schmidt, Eric Swihart, Tracy Robinson, Bo Kim. 2025. “Investing in Implementation Infrastructure for Emerging Drug Trends: A Mixed Methods Cost Analysis of the Rapid Adaptation to Prevent Drug Use (RAPD) Pilot Study.” (Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drug-Use) Link 

Jacob Whitman. 2025. “Locking Up Restaurants: Did COVID-19 Lockdowns Shift U.S. Consumption Patterns?” International Journal of Food & Agriculture Economics, forthcoming)

Papers Under Review 

1 Shared 1st authorship

 ^ Student co-author

Andria Eisman1, Jacob Whitman1, Lawrence Palinkas, Judy Fridline, Christina Harvey, Amy M. Kilbourne, David Hutton. “Economic Evaluation of Implementation Strategies for School-Based Universal Prevention: Insights from a Pilot Study.” (Under review)

Jacob Whitman, Harsheni Sudakar^, Yael Schenker, Lindsay Sabik. “Geographic Disparities in High Quality Hospice Care.” (Under review)

Andria B. Eisman, Jacob Whitman, Christine Koffkey, Lawrence Palinkas, Judy Fridline, Christina Harvey, Amy Kilbourne.“Bridging the Gap: A Pilot Study of Implementation Strategies for School-Based Universal Prevention on Student Mental Health and Substance Use Outcomes” (Under review)

Avanish Madhavaram, Jacob Whitman, Cailey Sanborn, Cameron Jones, Aniket Asees, Kathryn Marchetti, Benjamin Davies, Janel Hamner, Bruce Jacobs. “Patient Preferences for Treatment of Intermediate Risk of Prostate Cancer: A Discrete Choice Experiment” (Under review)

Lindsay M. Sabik, Jacob Whitman, Donald Bourne, Zhaojun Sun, Eric T. Roberts, Jonathan G. Yabes, Manisha Bhattacharya, David Bartlett. “Impacts of a Rural Hospital Global Budget Alternative Payment Model on Patterns of Cancer Surgery” (Under review)

Jacob Whitman, Bruce Jacobs, Jonathan G. Yabes, Yael Schenker, Lindsay M. Sabik. “The Impact of For-Profit Hospice Providers on End-of-Life Care for Prostate Cancer Decedents.” 

         Job Market Paper— 2026; Link 

Jacob Whitman, Xiaoxue Li, Shooshan Danagoulian. “Cooking At Home? Did COVID-19 Stay-At-Home Policies Change Grocery Store Purchasing Habits?” 

        Job Market Paper— 2024; Link 

Jacob Whitman, Donald Bourne, Zhaojun Sun, Eric T. Roberts, Jonathan G. Yabes, Manisha Bhattacharya, David Bartlett, Bruce Jacobs, Lindsay M. Sabik. “Global Budgeting and Surgical Care Outcomes: An Analysis of the Pennsylvania Rural Health Model” Link 

Jacob Whitman, Harsheni Sudakar^, Dylan Nagy, Coleman Drake, Yael Schenker, Lindsay Sabik. “Geographic Clustering of Hospice Care in Pennsylvania” Link 

Jacob Whitman, Ana Milan Hinostroza. “Drunk Driving During the Pandemic: Understanding the Effects of Alcohol To-Go Laws.” Link 

Jacob Whitman, Zade Abou-Rass, Andria Eisman. “Patterns of Mental Health and Substance Use Risk in Adolescents: Contextual Evidence from Screening Data in Michigan Schools”