Calendar Year (CY) 2027 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Proposed Rule 
CMS Newsroom; Fact Sheet; 7/14/26 paired with U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, CMS CY 2027 Payment Policies under the Physician Fee Schedule, 7/16/26; summary by guest editor Judi Lund Person 
On July 14, 2026, the Federal Register posted the CY 2027 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule proposed rule – CMS-1848-P. The CMS Fact Sheet on the proposed rule can be found here. While the proposed rule is 1,592 pages, there are two items of note to hospice and palliative care readers: 1) Supporting Beneficiaries Planning for Future Medical Decisions.CMS is proposing to create two new HCPCS codes to describe advance care planning (ACP) services furnished by clinical staff under the direct supervision of the billing physician or other practitioner. These new codes will more accurately distinguish and value the work done by billing practitioners from time spent by their clinical staff providing ACP services. We are further proposing that the existing ACP CPT codes 99497 and 99498 would only be used to report time personally spent by the billing practitioner. 2) RFI on Community-based Palliative Care, asking questions on eligibility for serious illness care and palliative care, the future of care management services and advanced primary care management.   

Savings in Medicare hospice payments for care provided in nursing homes 
U.S. HHS-OIG; Project Number OEI-02-26-00180; 7/15/26 
The HHS OIG today announced an addition to the OIG Workplan to review the routine home care payments paid for patients in nursing homes. The fixed daily rates that Medicare pays hospices for routine home care provided in a nursing home include personal care services.  However, nursing homes are already required to provide personal care services to their residents.  Paying the hospice the full routine home care rate that covers personal care services when these services are already required from the nursing home can undermine the efficiency of Medicare payments and add to the incentives that bad actors have to exploit the program.  This review will determine Medicare payments for routine home care provided to hospice beneficiaries in nursing homes, estimate potential cost savings from reducing the payment to address the inefficiency in the payment structure, and examine practices of hospices with a high percentage of their beneficiaries in nursing homes. The date for the release of the report has not been announced.

Leadership starts with presence — the art of showing up with David Sachsenmaier | part one 
Teleios Collaborative Network (TCN); podcast hosted by Chris Comeaux with David Sachsenmaier; 7/15/26 
What separates truly exceptional leaders from those who simply manage?  In Part One of this thought-provoking conversation, Chris Comeaux sits down with executive coach David Sachsenmaier, whose 30 years of leadership experience and more than 4,000 hours of executive coaching have helped leaders uncover one of leadership's most overlooked truths: the quality of your leadership is shaped by the quality of your inner life.  Together, they explore why presence, self-awareness, and emotional grounding are essential to building healthy teams, resilient organizations, and cultures where people thrive.

What hospices can learn from Netflix 
Hospice News; by Jim Parker; 7/15/26 
Netflix has infiltrated many of our homes, and hospices can learn a lesson or two from that company’s history of innovation. Many commentators have held up the streaming and entertainment company as a pillar of innovation, repeatedly reinventing itself as market conditions change. The company is adept at riding the “S-curve,” which models growth and progress for a business over a period of time. To form the “S,” a company must pass through three phases: slow initial growth (the base), rapid acceleration (the middle) and eventual leveling off (the maturity phase). Hospice businesses, for profit and nonprofit, must also ride this curve to succeed. This could require stepping outside their comfort zone, according to Agrace President and CEO Lynne Sexten.

Center for Hospice Care and VNA Hospice NWI announce strategic affiliation to strengthen hospice care in Northwest Indiana 
GreatNews.Life; by VNA Hospice NWI & Center for Hospice Care; 7/14/26 
Center for Hospice Care (CHC) and Visiting Nurse Association Hospice of Northwest Indiana (VNA Hospice NWI) today announced a legally binding strategic affiliation that will strengthen access to high-quality, compassionate hospice care across much of northern Indiana. This affiliation reflects a shared mission between CHC and VNA Hospice NWI to provide compassionate, skilled care focused on comfort and quality of living for those facing a serious, advanced illness. The integration process will allow patients to transition seamlessly within a unified nonprofit care network, ensuring continuity of care without disruption.

Cardiologists treating increasingly complex patients as America ages 
Medscape; by Sarah Amandolare; 7/14/26 
... Heart failure (HF) affects 15%-20% of adults over 80, according to the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology/Heart Failure Society of America Guideline for the Management of Heart Failure. HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), which becomes more likely after age 80, is related to other common conditions of aging, including hypertension, chronic kidney disease, diabetes, and obesity. “Almost by definition, most people that have HFpEF have multiple comorbidities,” Hummel said. “You have to account for a lot of them when you’re thinking about how to help the patient best.” This population also has higher chances of developing dementia and frailty, which affect 35% of adults age 90 and older and 31% of octogenarians, respectively. Older adults hospitalized for HF also have a high likelihood of polypharmacy; 68% take 10 or more medicines.

Evaluation of a pharmacist-driven discharge medication reconciliation service 
Pharmacy Times; by Missy Montino, PharmD, Madison Holmes, PharmD, BCPS, Shannon Pierce, PharmD, CPh, BCPS, Randi Silcox, PharmD, Anna-Marie Freeland, PharmD, Bola Habeb, MD; 7/13/26 
Introduction: Medication reconciliation is a systematic process utilized to ensure the accuracy and consistency of a patient’s medication information across transitions in care. It involves comparing the patient’s current medication regimen with the prescribed medications to identify and resolve discrepancies, such as omissions, duplications, dosing errors, or potential drug interactions. ...
Discussion and Conclusion: ... This study adds to the body of evidence supporting pharmacy’s positive impact on patient health outcomes, specifically in reducing 30-day readmission rates and identifying clinical interventions. This reinforces the benefit of a pharmacist-driven discharge medication reconciliation service. ...

Hospice compliance in the data driven era | a leadership advisory on enforcement risk and governance readiness 
JD Supra; by Ankura; 7/9/26 
Hospice enforcement has entered a structurally different phase. Oversight is no longer episodic or complaint‑driven; it is continuous, data‑driven, and predictive. Federal agencies increasingly identify risk through utilization analytics — length of stay, live discharges, diagnosis mix, and level‑of‑care patterns — before auditors ever review records. By the time a hospice receives an audit or payment action, the organization has often already been characterized as an outlier. ... From a leadership perspective, the most consequential insight is how eligibility is evaluated. Regulators assess hospice eligibility longitudinally, across the entire patient stay — not at isolated certification points. ...

Everyday ethics: Leave a legacy beyond material things 
Daily Times; by John C. Morgan; 7/15/26 
Buildings and other structures don't last forever, but there are things we can do that will endure. Everyone wants to leave a legacy, something that outlasts themselves, whether a cause, offspring or project that embodies their future hopes. One of the more famous sentences left behind was graffiti from World War II, a doodle of a bald-headed man peering over a wall accompanied by the phrase “Kilroy Was Here.” It showed that American troops had been there. ... I’ve always found it hopeful, not morbid, to take walks through cemeteries to read the life stories of others. The few words inscribed on headstones represent the essentials, sometimes with an accompanying message the departed wants to leave others to remember. ...

Japan pushes to expand children’s hospices through new consultation service 
Europe Says, Osaka, Japan; Press Release; 7/15/26 
For children with life-limiting illnesses or severe disabilities, even simple experiences such as playing freely or having friends stay overnight can be difficult. Children’s hospices aim to make such experiences possible while also providing support for their families, and efforts are underway to expand the number of these facilities in Japan. Tsurumi Children’s Hospice in Osaka, which opened in 2016, launched a consultation service in April to help people establish similar facilities across the country.

Why most healthcare brand strategies fail the first time leadership gets tested 
MedCityNews; by Erin Gregory; 7/10/26 
If you are sitting on a brand strategy right now, the test is not whether your team likes it. The test is whether it can be defended by someone who did not build it, to a board that did not commission it, by a leader who did not hire you. A few years ago, I watched a regional nonprofit in community health and wellness come close to imploding. ...

In World Cup football, the worst blindness is only seeing the ball.  [a beautiful reminder of vision and teamwork] ~ Nelson Falcón, World Cup Legend