Webinar series: AI and human connection in serious illness care
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; 10/26
AI is increasingly entering serious illness care, from tools that help health systems identify patients who could benefit from earlier palliative care, to AI-supported conversations with patients themselves, to systems that assist clinicians during the clinical encounter. This webinar series will draw on the experience of health systems, researchers, ethicists, and clinicians working at the leading edge of this technology to examine where AI strengthens human connection in serious illness care, where it may weaken or displace it, and what obligations health systems have to patients and families as these tools are developed and deployed. [The webinar link is here.]

Study finds dementia influences decisions about life-sustaining treatment, even when advance directives request it
CU Anschutz newsletter; by Kelsea Pieters; 10/7/26
A new CU Anschutz study found that dementia status can influence end-of-life treatment decisions, even when a patient’s advance directive requests life-sustaining care. The findings highlight the importance of ongoing conversations about end-of-life wishes and choosing a surrogate who understands and will honor those preferences. People were about 19 percentage points less likely to recommend life-sustaining treatment for a seriously ill patient with dementia than for a patient without dementia, even when an advance directive requested life-sustaining care, according to new research from the University of Colorado Anschutz. The study, published in JAMA Network Open [Surrogate decision-making for older adults with and without dementia by Lauren Hersch Nicholas, Scott D. Halpern, Kenneth M. Langa, Mario Macis], surveyed nearly 6,000 U.S. adults to examine how a patient’s dementia status, advance directive, physician recommendations and a surrogate decision-maker’s own preferences influenced recommendations about end-of-life care.
Publisher's note: Bold and italics mine - this is a striking finding! Per the article's conclusion, "These findings highlight the importance of preparing patients and surrogates for care decisions through explicit discussions of goals of care and decision-making roles."

Home-based medical care users more likely to enroll in hospice, study finds
McKnights Long-Term Care News; by Suzy Frisch; 10/16/26
Home-based medical care (HBMC) — longitudinal medical care provided in a patient’s home, led by physicians or advanced practice providers — has demonstrated its value reducing hospital admissions, emergency department visits and hospital length of stays. Now, according to a new study, it plays a role in hospice uptake and reducing extremes in hospice stays. A new study in Health Affairs Scholar, “Closing the Hospice Gap: The Value of Home-Based Medical Care,” found that HBMC users had greater odds of enrolling in hospice compared to nonusers. HBMC patients enrolled in hospice also experienced fewer ultra-short hospice stays of less than three days and prolonged stays of more than 180 days. These findings could open doors for HBMC to play a wider role in connecting people with hospice services.

What hospice buyers are looking for in 2026
Hospice News; by Jim Parker; 10/16/26
Hospice buyers in the M&A market in 2026 are looking for strong regulatory compliance, solid cash flow and effective leadership as they hunt for deals. Hospice M&A has seen an uptick in late 2025 and to date in 2026 after a three-year slump in deal activity. The M&A advisory firm The Braff Group projects that 44 transactions will take place in 2026, senior managing director Mark Kulik previously told Hospice News.

Aspirus Health to close Woodruff hospice care facility
WJFW [NBC12, WI]; 10/15/26
Aspirus Health is closing a Woodruff hospice care facility. In an email to WJFW, Aspirus said "based on the changing needs of the Northwoods community,, Aspirus Health will sunset hospice care at Seasons of Life Hospice House in Woodruff and transition hospice care to homes, assisted living facilities, nursing homes and other appropriate community settings." The Seasons of Life Hospice House was an eight-bed hospice house but it will be transitioning to hospice care to homes and nursing homes and shuttering the Woodruff location. A closing date has not been finalized yet. [The Aspirus Health press release is: Seasons of Life hospice care transitioning to home and community settings: Change will preserve compassionate hospice services while extending support across the Northwoods.]

Friends Fore Hospice golf tournament raises $97,000 for compassionate care
Carolina Caring [NC] press release; by Jason Meyer, Cassidy Hahn; 10/15/26
Carolina Caring Foundation’s 24th Annual Friends Fore Hospice Golf Tournament saw another successful year, bringing in over $97,000 to support patients and families in need of Carolina Caring’s serious illness care services.

Collaboration between oncology and palliative care key to high-quality care
Cancer Therapy Advisor; by Jennifer Larson; 10/16/26
High-performing oncology programs that foster mutual trust and real-time communication between oncology and palliative care teams achieve greater quality of care, better patient outcomes, and more timely hospice transitions.
To ensure patients with cancer receive high-quality care, oncology programs may need to take a close look at strategies for improving the relationship between their team and the palliative care team, according to the results of a study recently published in JAMA Internal Medicine [Effective palliative care for hospice transitions, 9/26].

Aging life care managers can be a ‘Godsend’ for families
KFF Health News; by Paula Span; 10/14/26
If a combination of appointments, bureaucracy, vigilance, and worry about a vulnerable older person — often interspersed with medical emergencies — sounds familiar, it might help to know about a service its providers ruefully call the best-kept secret in eldercare... About a decade ago, these experts rebranded themselves as aging life care managers. It usually takes a couple of years to become one. Most enter the profession as nurses or social workers; some are physical or occupational therapists or gerontologists. They must attain a required combination of advanced education and supervised experience before they can take the certification exam. The Aging Life Care Association, the nonprofit that represents these professionals, was founded in the 1980s and has grown to more than 2,000 members... Aging life care managers work for the client and the family paying them, not for hospitals or insurance companies. Moreover, the association’s extensive code of ethics specifically prohibits “accepting or giving referral fees, fee splitting, kickbacks or other similar arrangements in exchange for client referrals.” ... Aging life care managers serve as coordinators, not hands-on caregivers, and the range of services they provide is quite broad.

Why good employees quit comes down to 5 leadership mistakes
Inc.; by Marcel Schwantes; 10/15/26
Why do good employees leave companies they once loved working for? For many CEOs and business leaders, the answer seems obvious: better pay, more flexibility, or a more attractive opportunity elsewhere. And while those things certainly matter, research points to something leaders have far more control over: how employees experience their managers and workplace every day.

1. Failing to recognize good work
2. Micromanaging instead of trusting [Click on the article link above for all five reasons.]

‘A scalpel and not a shotgun’: Home care offers views on better fraud enforcement
McKnights Home Care; by Liza Berger; 10/15/26
The crackdown on Medicare home care fraud escalated in May when the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services imposed its first-ever nationwide moratorium on new hospice and home health provider enrollments. While the home care advocacy community, which includes associations that represent for-profit and nonprofit providers, expressed various opinions of the six-month regulation, it agrees that the moratorium should end at its scheduled time in November. There also is consensus on a better long-term strategy for fighting fraud: targeted, risk-based enforcement... “I think that as we sort of look at this for the long haul, we’ve got to create an approach that allows for sustainability — sustainability at addressing the fraud and abuse issues,” said Tom Koutsoumpas, CEO of the National Partnership for Healthcare and Hospice Innovation (NPHI), which represents about 140 not-for-profit community-based programs throughout the country, in a recent McKnight’s Home Care podcast... In speaking during a quarterly “state of home care” webinar hosted by the Polsinelli law firm in September, Jennifer Sheets, CEO of the Alliance, may have said it best: “We need a scalpel and not a shotgun. And I feel like we’re under the shotgun right now.”

Announcing JAMA AI - A new journal from the JAMA Network
JAMA Network; by Roy H. Perlis, Annette Flanagin, Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo; 10/15/26
We are pleased to announce that JAMA AI, the 14th journal in the JAMA Network, will launch in early 2027. JAMA AI will address the full spectrum of artificial intelligence (AI) in health care, from foundational advances to real-world clinical implications. We will strive to publish clinical research that involves not only AI, but the full range of computational tools as they are applied to improve human health. Beyond AI, the journal will publish impactful studies that incorporate mobile apps, wearable sensors, physiologic monitors, digital imaging and pathology, virtual reality, and all the analytic and implementation methods necessary to apply these technologies in medicine and health care. We will also publish studies that capture the effects of technology on health more broadly, including AI and social media.

Experience is a good teacher, though her fees are terribly high. ~William Ralph Inge