The Story of Procrustes

Procrustes was the son of Poseidon whose house was located by the sacred road between Athens and Eleusis. He would invite passersby to spend the night in a special bed that fit everyone perfectly. Once inside he would place them on a rack and stretch them to fit the bed or amputate their limbs if they were too long. Our Medicare Hospice benefit can be experienced as this Procrustian bed in which a patient must fit certain criteria to qualify for the service, including a six month prognosis, and once on the program must give up certain treatments seemingly at the whim of the hospice thereby performing a similar feat in which the patient is either stretched or cut down to fit the program.