Families struggle to secure home hospice 
U.S. News; by Cameron Blake; 6/3/26 
A woman’s effort to honor her husband Craig’s last wish to die at home became a second fight alongside his bladder cancer, highlighting growing strains in access to hospice care outside the hospital. The caregiver, who asked to speak about her experience, said the couple faced delays and mixed guidance when trying to arrange home-based support in the final weeks of his illness. Their story mirrors a national problem as more families seek comfort-centered care while agencies report tight staffing and stricter eligibility reviews.

• A Last Wish Meets a System Under Strain ...
• Why Home Hospice Is Hard to Arrange ...
• Quality Questions and Industry Shifts ...
• Families Caught Between Hospital and Home ...
• What Patients Can Do ...
• Policy Moves and What to Watch ...

A first look at first of its kind children's hospice in Florida 
Ocala StarBanner; by Doug Engle; 6/3/26 
The Bailey Family Tree of Wonder graces the hallway in The Foundation of Community Hospice & Palliative Care’s new Dorion Family Pediatric Center at 4266 Sunbeam Road, Jacksonville. The $10 million center was built within Community Hospice's Earl B. Hadlow Center for Caring and is named in honor of the Dorion family, led by Dorothy "Dottie" Dorion and her late husband, George Dorion, longtime Community Hospice supporters.

Hospice of the Valley charity art gala raises record $1.2 million 
Hospice of the Valley; by Lin Sue Flood; 5/21/26 
The energy inside the JW Marriott Camelback Inn ballroom was electric, as a spirited crowd of 500 gathered to support Hospice of the Valley’s compassionate care and community programs. The result was a historic $1.2 million raised at this year’s charity gala: aaha! art. food. wine. ... This record-breaking night also enables Hospice of the Valley’s specialized programs to continue to expand, from dementia support to grief counseling and community education provided at no charge.

Hospices expand patient reach 
Hospice News; by Holly Vossel; 6/4/26 
Some hospices are seeing geographic expansion as they unveil new locations. ...

• VITAS Healthcare’s Growing Florida Footprint ...
• Empath Health Opens Inpatient Center ...
• Reserve Care’s New Hospice Center ...
• Gentiva Hospice Expands in Arkansas ...

Father with terminal illness fights to attend MHSAA championship to see son play 
Northeaset Mississippi Daily Journal, Tupelo, MS; by Caleb McCluskey; 6/6/26 
From the time Carter Barefoot, 17, could walk, he was playing baseball, especially with his father, Alan Barefoot, who played Division I baseball in college. But illness has limited his father’s ability to enjoy the game they have shared throughout their lives. ... “He never missed a game,” Carter said. After doctors diagnosed Alan, 55, with terminal cancer and admitted him to Sanctuary Hospice, he physically could not be there for most of Carter’s junior-year season. Sanctuary made it happen, arranging for Alan to attend the playoffs in Pearl, where he watched his son’s Mooreville team become Class 4A state champion. It meant the world to Carter to see his dad there. 

Dr. Joan Teno exposes the hidden problems with hospice ratings and quality scores | part two 
Teleios Collaborative Network (TCN); podcast hosted by Chris Comeaux with Dr. Joan Teno; 6/3/26 
Hospice quality ratings play a critical role in helping patients and families make informed care decisions—but are they telling the whole story? In Part Two of this compelling conversation, Dr. Joan Teno continues her deep dive into the challenges surrounding hospice quality measurement, transparency, and consumer choice.  Building on the foundation established in Part One, she explores how healthcare leaders can better leverage existing data to help patients and families identify high-quality hospice providers while avoiding misleading or incomplete information.  Dr. Teno also shares her vision for a future where technology, data analytics, and artificial intelligence empower consumers to make more informed decisions during some of life’s most difficult moments.

LA County fraud: Why hospice care became the new target 
Film Daily; by Simone Barbon; 6/3/26 
Los Angeles County has become the focal point of multiple federal, state, and local actions against hospice fraud schemes that target Medicare and Medi-Cal. The concentration of facilities, unusual billing patterns, and recent arrests explain why regulators treat the county as ground zero. ... Data shows unusual density. Records reviewed by CBS News found roughly 1,800 hospices operating in Los Angeles County. More than 700 of them triggered multiple state fraud indicators. One stretch of Victory Boulevard contained nearly 500 hospices within three miles, and a single building listed 89 separate companies. Typical facilities in the county billed Medicare about $29,000 per patient. The national average sits at $13,200. That gap prompted auditors to flag the region years before arrests began.
Editor's Note: This article describes complex factors of the hospice fraud crisis with clarity for the general public.

Nevada Health Authority announces pause on new state licenses for hospice, home-health services as officials investigate possible Medicaid fraud 
KLAS, Las Vegas; by Linsey Lewis; 6/5/26 
The Nevada Health Authority announced a temporary pause on new state licenses for hospice and home-health services as state officials conduct “extensive” reviews of all Medicaid-enrolled hospice and home-health providers to identify cases of fraud. The pause on new state licenses for hospice and home-health providers and a moratorium on new enrollments for Nevada Medicaid come as fraud in the hospice and home-healthcare spaces garners national attention with high-dollar crimes from Medicaid and Medicare billing activities and fake operations.

Pastor-endorsed hospice education increases willingness to accept hospice among African American congregants in rural North Carolina 
American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine; by Tiffany D. Morris, DNP, MS, Ed, MSN, CNE; 5/28/26 
... This preliminary quality improvement project evaluated a culturally tailored, pastor-endorsed hospice education intervention in two African American Baptist churches (n = 49). Guided by humanistic nursing theory, pastors used the African American Outreach Guide for End-of-Life Care to dispel myths and explain hospice services. Willingness to accept hospice (AARP End of Life Survey) increased from 60.4% to 93.6% (51.7% relative increase), and uncertainty decreased from 39.6% to 6.4% (84.2% reduction).

Central Coast VNA & Hospice expands focus on aging-in-place support as regional demand grows 
K99.1 XLG, Monterey, CA; by Presswire.com; 6/5/26 
Central Coast VNA & Hospice, a nonprofit home healthcare organization serving Monterey, Santa Cruz, San Benito, and South Santa Clara counties, is expanding its community education and outreach efforts around aging-in-place care services. The initiative responds to a growing number of families in the region seeking structured, professional support to help older adults live safely and independently at home, a trend observed broadly across California and the nation as the senior population continues to grow.

Sunset Nursing & Rehabilitation Center partners with Hospice & Palliative Care 
PRLOG - Press Release Distribution, Buffalo, NY; by Sunset Nursing & Rehabilitation Center; 6/5/26 
Sunset Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Boonville, NY, is pleased to announce a new partnership with Hospice & Palliative Care, enhancing the level of care and support available to residents facing life-limiting illnesses. This collaboration introduces comprehensive hospice services within Sunset Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, ... Sunset Nursing & Rehabilitation Center provides post-hospital rehabilitation, skilled nursing care and respite care. Hospice & Palliative Care delivers specialized hospice services and is the sole provider of hospice services in Boonville, NY.

The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long for it to begin. ~ W.M. Lewis