Croí Health’s “The 12” gala raises more than $700,000 for hospice and home healthcare 
MassNonprofitNews; Press Release; 7/6/26 
Croí Health’s (formerly NVNA and Hospice) annual The 12 gala raised more than $700,000 to support hospice and home health care, the largest amount in the event’s 12-year history. Held on June 17th at the Pat Roche Hospice Home in Hingham, Croí welcomed hundreds of guests under a massive tent. The fundraiser unites community leaders, donors, and sponsors around a shared mission: ensuring no patient in need is turned away for financial reasons. Named for the Hospice Home’s original 12 private resident rooms, The 12 has become an annual tradition for South Shore philanthropists since its inception in 2015. Guests gather just steps away from the rooms where patients receive end-of-life care, making for a deeply reflective evening.

Allina Health hospice workers hold one-day strike 
KARE-11 NBC, Minneapolis, MN; by Heidi Wigdahl; 7/6/26 
On Monday [7/6], Allina Health hospice workers held a one-day strike as they fight for a first contract. A group of about 65 hospice nurses at Allina, who are members of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota & Iowa, voted in support of a strike at the end of June. Allina Health said the strike does not include nurses at Allina's hospitals and clinics but ones working in homes, skilled nursing facilities and assisted living facilities within the Twin Cities' greater metro area.

The hidden healthcare workforce: why family caregivers are essential to the future of care 
Healthcare Business Today; by Lance A. Slatton; 7/7/26 
Healthcare leaders across the United States are confronting a convergence of challenges unlike any in recent memory. Workforce shortages, rising healthcare costs, increasing patient complexity, chronic disease management, and a rapidly aging population are placing unprecedented demands on healthcare systems. As organizations search for solutions to improve outcomes, reduce costs, and maintain quality of care, one of the most important components of the healthcare ecosystem continues to be overlooked. Family caregivers. ... In many cases, they serve as the connective tissue holding an entire care plan together.

Addressing the emotional and psychologic toll of a cancer diagnosis 
Cancer Therapy Advisor; by Sabrina Martinez, MS and Jason L. Harris; 7/7/26 
Patients with cancer experience distress not only from receiving a jarring diagnosis, but also a treatment regimen that can be difficult and debilitating, additional challenges to relationships that might be fraught already, significant financial stress, and the reality of death. Many also experience thoughts of fear of recurrence, stress, depression, anxiety, self-consciousness, and loneliness. The mental and emotional burden of cancer can be as difficult as enduring the disease itself. We spoke with oncologists and experts in psycho-oncology to get their perspectives on delivering “bad” news, working with loved ones and caregivers, resources for those involved in the patient’s cancer journey, and survivorship issues that should be addressed.

Dignity therapy: What matters most in end-of-life care? 
Medscape; by Irene Salvetti, MD; 7/7/26 
... Many patients, especially in advanced stages of illness, express the fear of no longer being themselves, of becoming a burden, or of losing their sense of meaning, role, and memory. In these experiences, suffering is not merely physical but also related to identity, relationships, and spirituality. The way patients perceive themselves as viewed by others is an important determinant of their sense of dignity. Dignity therapy was developed to give voice to this often-overlooked aspect of the experience of illness. ...  Harvey Max Chochinov introduced dignity therapy as a brief psychotherapeutic intervention for individuals with advanced or terminal illness, with the goal of preserving a sense of personal dignity during times of frailty, dependence, and the approach of death.

The hidden cost of cancer's end: how financial strain shapes final months of care 
Fred Hutch Cancer Center, University of Washingon, Seattle, WA; by D. Moosavi; 6/25/26 
... Previous Fred Hutch research has shown that people with cancer are more than twice as likely to file for bankruptcy, and nearly twice as likely to experience what researchers call an “adverse financial event,” compared with people who don’t have cancer. But most of that earlier work focused on financial hardship as an outcome caused by cancer. This study flips the question: once someone is already dealing with financial strain, what happens to the care they receive as their illness progresses? 

False Claims Act insights - how hospice fraud impacts legitimate providers  
Hospice Insights Podcast; by Husch Blackwell LLP; 7/6/26 
Host Jonathan Porter welcomes Bryan Nowicki, leader of Husch Blackwell’s hospice practice group and host of the Hospice Insights podcast, to discuss the recent wave of hospice fraud enforcement. With hospice fraud dominating headlines in recent months, Bryan shares insights on how massive fraud schemes are impacting the industry and why legitimate providers face collateral damage.

Assisted Living Facilities: information on federal spending and Medicaid coverage 
U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO); GAO-26-107884; published 6/2/26 and publicly released 7/2/26 
Highlights - What GAO Found
... GAO’s analysis of program data showed that federal Medicaid and Medicare spending for services provided in assisted living facilities totaled at least $12 billion in 2024. This amount is likely an undercount because of data limitations. For example, assisted living facilities are not a uniformly defined provider type and thus not consistently identified in the data.

• Federal Medicaid spending. GAO identified at least $3.5 billion in federal Medicaid spending for services provided in assisted living facilities in 2024. ...
• Medicare spending. GAO identified $8.5 billion in traditional Medicare spending for services provided in assisted living facilities in 2024. ...

Hospitals confront nursing opposition to AI 
HFMA; by Rich Daly; 7/7/26 
Health systems’ adoption of artificial intelligence to improve productivity increasingly is meeting opposition from their nursing staff. Nurse opposition to AI has become most visible in nurse strikes, where limits and guardrails on AI deployment for clinical and administrative uses have emerged. Sixty-five percent of hospitals reported using AI or predictive models integrated with their electronic health records (EHRs) in 2023, according to a recent study. But nurse distrust of the technology was seen in a 2024 National Nurses United survey of 2,300 registered nurses, which found that 60% of respondents did not trust their employers to prioritize patient safety when implementing AI.

After Nebraska sanctions and federal charges, Iowa nurse surrenders license 
Iowa Capital Dispatch; by Clark Kauffman; 7/7/26 
Almost two years after the State of Nebraska revoked a nurse’s ability to practice there for posing a “significant risk to public safety,” Iowa’s Board of Nursing has agreed to accept the nurse’s surrender of her license to practice in Iowa. The decision by the Iowa board comes after Brandy Wicks, a registered nurse from Treynor, was accused of stealing patient medications from a hospital, a home-hospice program and at least two nursing homes, and after her indictment on 11 federal criminal charges.

[United Kingdom] Hospice hosts wedding for cancer patient in hours 
BBC News; by Asha Patel; 7/7/26 
Hospice staff organized an "unforgettable" wedding in seven hours so a cancer patient could marry her partner of 33 years. Karen and Stephen Glossop, from Eckington in Derbyshire, put their wedding plans on hold after Karen was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year and her health deteriorated. After a conversation with staff at Ashgate Hospice, Chesterfield, where Karen is currently an inpatient, the couple's wishes became a reality, all in the space of a few hours. Karen, 58, and Stephen, 57, exchanged their vows in the hospice's courtyard, which was transformed into the wedding venue, on Thursday, surrounded by family and friends. 

The day you plant the seed is not the same day you eat the fruit. ~ Ralph Smart