Awards and Recognitions: June 2025

• Florida Hospice & Palliative Care Association 2025 Awards of Excellence Winners
• 2025 Barbara Janosko Leadership Award, Kristal Goodwin, Haven Hospice
• 2025 The Catalyst Award, Theresa Fesler, Treasure Coast Hospice and St. Francis Reflections Hospice
• 2025 Hospice Heart Award, Cindy Moon, Avow Hospice
• 2025 Hospice Heart Award, Sara Parsons, VITAS Healthcare
• 2025 Hospice Story Award, Betsy Miller, The Foundation of Community Hospice & Palliative Care
• 2025 Rising Leader Award, Alexis Kidd, The Foundation of Community Hospice & Palliative Care
• 2025 Rising Leader Award, Amber Givens, Avow Hospice
• 2025 Synergy Award, Chiefland Care Team, Haven Hospice
• 2025 Excellence in Program Innovation - Community Outreach Award, Hospice of Health First
• Click here for photos; click here for the official press release.
  
  
• Carolina Caring Awarded CHAP Accreditation
• In addition to a deficiency-free survey and organizational accreditation, Carolina Caring earned CHAP’s “4M’s for Age-Friendly Care Certification”, affirming its dedication to age-appropriate care with an emphasis on Medication, Mind, Mobility, and What Matters to patients. 
• Kim Mooney, Thanatologist, Inaugural Award by the 2025  End of Life Options Colorado Conference

The Alliance Responds to CY 2026 Home Health Proposed Rule
National Alliance for Care at Home, Alexandria, VA and Washington, DC; Press Release; 6/20/25
The National Alliance for Care at Home (the Alliance) issued the following statement today in response to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Calendar Year (CY) 2026 Home Health Prospective Payment System Rate and Durable Medical Equipment, Prosthetics, Orthotics, and Supplies Competitive Bidding Program Updates proposed rule, which proposes payment and regulatory updates for Medicare home health agencies (HHAs). The proposed rule includes policies that would reduce payments to HHAs by over $1 billion dollars in 2026, at a time when providers also continue to experience unmatched inflationary pressure in a challenging labor market — making it difficult, if not impossible in some areas, to deliver care to Medicare beneficiaries entitled to receive it.

Social Media Watch 6/27/25

• Illinois Hospice & Palliative Care Organization shared four key bills have officially passed both chambers of the IL General Assembly. These bills will: expand prescription pickup flexibility for hospice providers; require a statewide report on hospice & palliative care; improve oversight of end-of-life care in correctional facilities; and ensure better POLST training for healthcare providers.
• Highlander Health co-founder Dr. Amy Abernethy delivered the commencement keynote to the largest graduating class of the Duke-NUS Medical School, and shared her perspective with early-career researchers in a fireside chat hosted by the Duke-NUS Centre for Career Readiness. Across both conversations, her message was clear: medical and scientific training prepares you for far more than clinical practice or academic research. It equips you to lead with purpose, with humility, and in any direction your story takes you.
• Phillip Heath shared Samaritan's post Eddie Garcia, Founder and Secretary of The Foundation for Social Connection, and Joanne Rosen, Chief Marketing & Public Affairs Officer, are at this year’s Global Loneliness Awareness Summit learning tools and resources for increasing wellbeing as well as solutions for ending isolation and loneliness. 

HOPE Tool Anxiety, Part II: From planning to practice 
Teleios Collaborative Network (TCN); by Melissa Calkins; 6/30/25
The countdown has begun. With October 1 on the horizon, hospice teams across the country are deep into training and testing—but preparation alone won’t guarantee success. The shift to HOPE isn’t just operational; it’s cultural. And real readiness goes far beyond timelines and task completion. It demands that every clinician, across every shift and care setting, understands what’s changing and feels confident in how to respond. This is the critical moment when planning must translate into practice—because once HOPE is live, the margin for error disappears.

• Key Questions to Ask Now ...
• Tools to Track Real Readiness (Not Just the Plan) ...
• Cross-Setting Scenario Planning ...
• Leadership Alignment: The Overlooked Risk ...
• Vendor + Practice Integration: Time for a Reality Check ...

Editor's Note: Click here for Part 1, HOPE Anxiety: What are we forgetting in the rush to prepare?

Serious illness conversations in the Emergency Department for older adults with advanced illnesses - A randomized clinical trial
JAMA Network; by Kei Ouchi, Susan D. Block, Dorene M. Rentz, Donna L. Berry, Hannah Oelschlager, Youkie Shiozawa, Sarah Rossmassler, Amanda L. Berger, Mohammad A. Hasdianda, Wei Wang, Edward Boyer, Rebecca L. Sudore, James A. Tulsky, Mara A. Schonberg; 6/25
Does an emergency department (ED)–based intervention to discuss serious illness care goals improve advance care planning outcomes for older adults with advanced illnesses? In this randomized clinical trial including 141 patients in the ED, a nurse-led intervention to discuss serious illness care goals did not significantly improve patient-reported engagement in advance care planning but did increase subsequent clinician-documented serious illness conversations in the medical records. These findings suggest that ED visits may serve as a critical access point for serious illness conversations in clinically stable older adults with advanced illnesses.

Providence hospice workers to hold 1st strike 
Becker's Hospital Review; by Kelly Gooch; 6/30/25 
Providence workers are set to begin a two-day strike July 2 at Hospice of Petaluma (Calif.) and Memorial Hospice in Santa Rosa, Calif. The action marks their first-ever strike and comes amid ongoing contract negotiations. The strike involves more than 100 nurses, social workers, home health aides, chaplains and other hospice workers, according to their union, the National Union of Healthcare Workers. Union-represented hospice workers have been negotiating their first contract with Renton, Wash.-based Providence since 2023, when they unionized, according to NUHW. They contend that Providence has not adequately bargained — a concern compounded by the system’s planned transition of home-based care services to Compassus through a joint venture. 

Solomon Center white paper outlines options to expand health care for children living with serious illness
Yale Law School; 6/25/25 
As state lawmakers consider establishing a statewide pediatric palliative care program, a new white paper from researchers at the Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy at Yale Law School recommends ways that access to palliative care can be improved for Connecticut’s estimated 7,000+ children living with serious illnesses.

• Addressing Urgent Coverage Gaps ...
• Strengthening Provider Training ...
• Timely Support for Legislative Action ...
• Evidence-Based Benefits ...

How Empath Health integrates end-of-life care into PACE
Hospice News; by Jim Parker; 6/26/25
Under the Programs for All-Inclusive Care of the Elderly (PACE) model, patients generally do not transition to the Medicare Hospice Benefit as they near death. Consequently, Empath Health has taken pains to ensure quality end-of-life care is integrated into its program. Empath considers these services to be a key component of its “Full Life Care” model, that seeks to longitudinally support patients over the course of their serious or terminal illness, according to Dr. Nick Joseph, senior vice president of Empath’s Complete Care Division. The organization provides end-of-life care in the home, with services that mirror its hospice program.

New Day Healthcare acquires Dunes Hospice
Hospice News; by Jim Parker; 6/25/25
The home health and hospice company New Day Healthcare has acquired Dunes Hospice in Indiana for an undisclosed amount. The deal marks New Day’s 16th acquisition to date, as well as its first entry into the Indiana market. The company plans to build density in that state by adding personal care services and skilled home health services to those markets. New Day now serves patients in six states... Just last week, Texas-based New Day inked an agreement to acquire New Mexico-based Heritage Home Healthcare LLC.

The Alliance responds to Senate passage of Reconciliation Bill 
National Alliance for Care at Home, Alexandira, VA and Washington, DC; Press Release; 7/1/25 
The National Alliance for Care at Home (the Alliance) issued the following statement today in response to the Senate’s passage of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” also known as the Reconciliation bill. “The Alliance is alarmed by the Senate’s passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which prioritizes misplaced budget cuts over the health and wellbeing of our most vulnerable. The legislation will reduce access to care and support for the millions of Americans who rely on home and community-based services (HCBS),” said Alliance CEO Dr. Steve Landers. ... “The Alliance continues to maintain that the complexity of the Medicaid program makes it nearly impossible to reduce expenditures by the amounts contemplated by this legislation – potentially exceeding $1 trillion over ten years – without impacting services to older adults and people with disabilities. The Alliance will advocate on behalf of Medicaid enrollees, families, and providers nationwide ...

CMS Age-Friendly Measure: Overview for hospitals and health systems 
Institute for Healthcare Improvement; retrieved from the internet 7/2/25 
Starting with the 2025 reporting period, hospitals will attest to providing age-friendly care through a new measure introduced by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The CMS Age Friendly Hospital Measure advances the Age-Friendly Health Systems movement’s vision to ensure that all older adults receive age-friendly care that is evidence-based and aligns with what matters most to the older adult and their family caregivers. To date, nearly 5,000 sites of care have been recognized as Age-Friendly Health Systems — Participants and celebrated by IHI and The John A. Hartford Foundation. The measure has five domains that cover all four elements of age-friendly care, known as the 4Ms: What Matters, Medication, Mentation, and Mobility.

[Korea] Alzheimer Disease in Breast Cancer survivors
JAMA Network; by Su-Min Jeong, Wonyoung Jung, Hyeonjin Cho, Hea Lim Choi, Keun Hye Jeon, Ki-Woong Nam, Yun-Gyoo Lee, Bongseong Kim, Kyungdo Han, Dong Wook Shin; 6/20
Is breast cancer survivorship associated with the risk of Alzheimer dementia (AD), and how are cancer treatments associated with this risk? Breast cancer survivors may have a slightly lower risk of AD compared with cancer-free individuals, potentially influenced by cancer treatments, underscoring the need for further research on long-term neurocognitive outcomes in this population.

America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination. ~Harry S. Truman