Joan Teno’s SOS Hospice Substack
Dr. Joan Teno is a health services researcher and practicing hospice physician. She started SOS Hospice as a space to share insights, data, and reflections about hospice care in the U.S. She seeks to connect research, policy, and real world experience to help make hospice care more transparent, understandable, and person centered.
Guest Editor Note by Dr. Ira Byock: Joan Teno has been a prolific health delivery and policy researcher. She creatively mines public health and health services data to reveal patterns and trends of hospice use – and identifies opportunities to expand access and improve quality of care. Now she is bringing her skills and insights to this new Substack. To the data wonks among us, SOS Hospice is a compelling read. I subscribed immediately!
Publisher's Note: I subscribed immediately, too!

Agrace expands to serve southeastern Wisconsin 
Fidelity, Milwaukee, WI; by PR Newswire; 4/2/26 
Agrace, the largest Wisconsin-based nonprofit hospice, has expanded to serve the entire southern half of Wisconsin with the addition of Ozaukee, Washington, Racine and Kenosha counties to its Milwaukee service region. ... Southeastern Wisconsin Agrace patients are served through its regional office in Wauwatosa by a care team that includes a local hospice physician, nurses, CNAs, volunteers and a spiritual & grief counselor.

Hospice of the Prairie & Prairie Home Health announces leadership transition 
The Dodge City Daily Globe, Dodge City, KS; by Tammy Lawson; 4/3/26 
Dodge City Hospice of the Prairie & Prairie Home Health ... announces an Executive Director leadership transition. After 25 years of service, Julie Pinkerton, BS RN CHPN, will step down as Executive Director. ... Under Julie's leadership, the organization experienced growth through increased usage of home health and hospice care throughout the service area while establishing organizational sustainability, working closely with frontline clinicians and community partners.
The organization is pleased to welcome Jeremy Rabe, MBA, as the new Executive Director of Hospice of the Prairie & Prairie Home Health. Jeremy brings more than 20 years of experience in healthcare leadership. ... Jeremy will begin his role as Executive Director on June 1 with Julie leaving the organization later in the summer.

Ellsworth nonprofit receives boost from Stanley Subaru round-up donations 
WABI-5, Ellsworth, ME; by Colin Gallagher; 4/6/26
A round-up donation program from Stanley Subaru has helped give some extra support to a local non-profit. Hospice Volunteers of Hancock County in Ellsworth were selected by the car dealership as last month’s non-profit to benefit from the program. ... "It’s great to give back because sometimes the littlest things mean the most. For example, with Hancock County Hospice Volunteers, we had recently lost two of our employees that they have been heavily involved with,” says Stanley Subaru General Manager Kevin Townsend.

TNMHPO Announcing Veteran Initiative Partnership (VIP)
Texas ~ New Mexico Hospice & Palliative Care Organization; email; 4/1/26 
If your organization supports veterans in hospice or palliative care, we’d love to invite you to be part of something meaningful. Introducing the Veterans Initiative Partnership (VIP) — a new, no-cost program designed to bring together providers, partners, and professionals committed to improving care for veterans. ...

• Free to join (open to all states)
• Access to veteran-focused education & training
• Opportunities to connect and collaborate
• A growing referral network of trusted partners
• Recognition of your commitment with a VIP certificate

Saad Healthcare’s ‘The Retreat’ offers comfort for hospice patients and families 
Fox10 News - WALA, Mobile, AL; by Lee Peck; 4/3/26 
Behind Saad Healthcare sits a place for families seeking comfort and support during end-of-life care. They call it “The Retreat” — Saad’s inpatient hospice center. Gloria Massingill recalls her first visit three years ago, when her husband Kenny was looking for hospice care for his 93-year-old father. ... Saad’s The Retreat has 24 hospice beds on site and an additional 15 at their Providence location.

Quality improvement project: Implementing a mortality screening tool post hospital discharge to guide goals of care conversations and improve hospice admissions 
Geriatric Nursing; by Chelsea Goston, TeriAnn Benson, Heather Coats; 4/2/26 online ahead of print 
Problem: Bloom Healthcare has insufficient identification and under use of hospice services for eligible patients with chronic conditions. This gap leads to unnecessary hospitalizations, high costs, and suboptimal end-of-life experiences. ...
Conclusions: The prognosis screening tool effectively facilitates timely hospice admissions and goals of care conversations in home-based care settings, enhancing end-of-life care and patient centered outcomes.

Trump: JD Vance will be new fraud czar, focus on 'blue states' 
UPI (United Press International); by Lisa Hornung; 4/3/26 
Vice President JD Vance is now the government's fraud czar, according to President Donald Trump, and he will focus on "blue states."

Finding rare agreement on fixing the health care affordability crisis
Penn LDI - Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics; by Hoag Levins; 4/7/26 
In a rare display of bipartisan alignment, former Obama administration advisor Ezekiel Emanuel and Trump policy architect Brian Blase declared that the U.S. health care system is being choked by “perverse incentives” and monopolistic practices. ...

• Top Cost Driver: Hospitals ...
• Fragmented Payment and Perverse Incentives ...
• Rapid-Fire Discussion Topics ...

The Second Panel: Plans, Paperwork, and Prior Authorization ...
The Third Panel: Consolidation, Corporatization, and Price ...

Westhampton teen's care packages honor her late father 
WN.com - Newsday; by Michael R. Ebert; 3/29/26 
... Elizabeth Sultan, a junior at Westhampton Beach High School, recently spearheaded a program called Peter's Packages, named in honor of her father, Peter, who died last year at 54 after suffering a heart attack while competing in the Jamesport Triathlon. Sultan's initiative provides curated care packages that contain items ranging from books to blankets. She said she was inspired to launch the effort after she and her brother, William, received similar comfort items from community members following their father's death.

CHS boosts performance-based exec pay 
Becker's Hospital Review; by Alan Condon; 4/6/26 
Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems is doubling down on performance-based compensation for its top executives, tying the majority of pay to financial and operational results, according to a proxy report filed April 2 with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Life is like a landscape. You live in the midst of it but can describe it only from the vantage point of distance. ~ Charles Lindbergh