Tuesday's Tools: Summarize the past week with Sunday's "most read" stories
Hospice & Palliative Care Today; by Joy Berger; 8/24/26

Calling all readers to our new Tuesday’s Tools series. Each Tuesday, we’re highlighting a tool included with your free subscription to help you use our news to improve the care you provide.

This week’s tool: our Sunday issues.

Each Sunday, Hospice & Palliative Care Today compiles our 10-12 top-read posts from the previous week, based on click-throughs. These are expertly compiled by our Owner and Publisher, Cordt Kassner, PhD, data-guru national consultant and also Founder/CEO of Hospice Analytics.  

In case you missed it--or want to distill "what matters most?" from the 72 posts we've given you during the week--our Sunday issues summarize top topics to review from before and to prepare for ahead.

Easy ways to use our Sunday issues:

1. Your inbox: Look for your Sunday edition of Hospice & Palliative Care Today.
2. Archives: Login to your newsletter account from our homepage, click the "Newsletter Archive" in the menu bar, and select the date of the Sunday issue you want to view. For security, this archive tab is only available to subscribers when logged in. 
3. Share with leaders and teams: As usual, you can forward your email or an article's URL to specific leaders and teams, or use the LinkedIn share button on our webpage. 

Use these Sunday issues to stay attuned to key topics, to deepen conversations with your teams, and strengthen the care you provide. Identify what speaks to your current challenges, and what may affect you in the future.

‘Pitt’ Crew: all 13 Emmy-nominated actors on bedside manners, blow-ups and fan theoriesTheWrap;
by Steve Pond and TheWrap Staff; 8/21/26 
TheWrap magazine: “It’s such a collective effort,” Noah Wyle says of making the hit HBO Max hospital drama. ... The 13 acting nominees, one shy of the record set by “Succession,” spoke to TheWrap about life in the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center. Noah Wyle, Dr. Michael “Robby” Rabinovitch, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series: If Wyle’s Dr. Robby is a broken hero in the first season, he’s shattered in the second, mistreating his staff and acting so self-destructively that he seems borderline suicidal. His perpetually dark mood did not go unnoticed among “Pitt” fans. ... [Continue reading for descriptions by the actors about The Pitt's characters they portray: Dr. Frank Langdon, Dr. Jack Abbot, Dr. Dennis Whitaker, Dr. Melissa King, Dr. Cassie McKay, Charge Nurse Dana Evans, Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi, Louie Cloverfield, Duke Ekins, Roxie Hamler, Becca King, Ilana Miller.]
Editor's Note: Many of these examples apply to the entire IDG, non-clinical leaders, and support staff. Use brief excerpts in your staff meetings and clinical education to teach specific topics with engaging, memorable content. Invite insights from attendees.

Hospice nurses at Minnesota-based Allina Health vote to authorize 7-day unfair labor practice strike 
CBS News Minnesota; by Nicholas Lentz; 8/24/26 
Hospice nurses who work for Minnesota-based Allina Health have voted to authorize a seven-day unfair labor practice strike, the union representing them said on Monday. According to Service Employees International Union Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa, all workers who cast a ballot on Friday voted in favor of the strike. The authorization comes amid negotiations to reach a first contract that have been happening for more than a year, SEIU said. Members allege Allina Health is opposed to "creating a fair compensation system that would give nurses extra pay for extra work"  and refuses to pay salaried registered nurses a holiday premium when they are required to work on holidays. The union added that the company also doesn't allow hospice nurses to flex their schedules.

Boilermakers Local 105 donates $6,000 to SOMC Hospice
The Portsmouth Daily Times, Portsmouth, OH; by Landen Puckett; 8/22/26
Boilermakers Local 105 continued its tradition of supporting the local community by donating $6,000 to SOMC Hospice from proceeds raised during its annual charity golf outing. Boilermakers Local 105 is a labor union representing skilled workers in the boilermaking and related trades. The union supports workers who perform construction, maintenance, repair and other skilled industrial work, while also participating in community activities and charitable efforts throughout the region.

A retrospective mixed-methods analysis of falls among patients in a social model hospice residential care home 
American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine; by Carol S. Weisse, PhD, Kelly Melekis, MSW, PhD, Lam Nguyen, Cort Collier, BS, and Nadia Kelley, MPH; 8/9/26 
... In the 24-hour period prior to patients’ falls, opiates were shown to be the most frequently administered medication followed by benzodiazepines, with higher rates of falls among patients who consumed both of these medications in combination. Most falls occurred in the bedroom or bathroom and were related to toileting needs. Results suggest that informal caregivers may benefit from additional training when supporting hospice patients’ toileting needs, especially when they have received opiates and benzodiazepines. Results illustrate caregivers’ efforts to balance fall risk with patients’ desire for autonomy as a central element of home hospice care. 
Editor's Note: What systems do you have for reporting, responding to, and reducing patient falls at home: evidence-based protocols, IDG and caregiver/family education, and both immediate Incident Reporting and long-term QAPI analysis? Compare your processes for (1) this up-close, expected patient risk with (2) your larger-scale Emergency Disaster Preparedness — mitigation, preparation, response, recovery, evaluation. Are you ready, or not?

Aging Luzerne County prison population cited as challenge 
The Dallas Post; by Jennifer Learn-Andes; 8/22/26 
During recent legislative testimony about crime trends, Luzerne County Manager Romilda Crocamo highlighted the aging prison population as a concern that must be addressed. Older inmates with “escalating chronic health needs” are contributing to rising medical costs and challenging a prison staff “increasingly called upon to manage geriatric and end-of-life care in a setting never designed for it,” she told the Senate Majority Policy Committee and House Republican Policy Committee at a hearing earlier this month in Hazleton. “Corrections officers are trained for security, not hospice care,” Crocamo told the legislators, emphasizing “graying behind bars” is an emerging issue statewide. 

Finding Medicare Fee-for-Service (FFS) Payment System Rules: schedules and resources 
Congressional Research Service - Informing the legislative debate since 1914; by Congressional Research Service, summary by Michele L. Malloy; updated 8/14/26 
The Medicare Fee-for-Service (FFS) program pays physicians, hospitals, and other health care facilities based on statutorily established payment systems, most of which are updated annually through regulations. The publication of Medicare FFS proposed and final rules follow schedules based on requirements found in statute, regulation, or both. ... This report contains information on these payment system rules in a quick reference table. Specifically, the table compiles the payment systems; their main portals on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) website; the typical rulemaking schedule; statutory and regulatory requirements; and the most recently issued proposed rules, public comments, final rules, and subsequent corrections.

Wound care fraud: key insights for healthcare providers in 2026 
JD Supra; by Lynette Byrd; 8/21/26 
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS OIG) are prioritizing wound care fraud enforcement in 2026. Healthcare providers are facing scrutiny under the False Claims Act and Anti-Kickback Statute, with audits and investigations leading to substantial liability (among other consequences) in many cases. ... Allegations of wound care-related health care fraud can take many different forms. ... While it is critical that elderly patients (including hospice patients and other terminally ill patients) receive appropriate care, there are limits to what is considered appropriate when billing Medicare or Medicaid for wound care. ...

The Department of Justice's National Fraud Enforcement Division: a new era of coordinated fraud prosecution and what it means for corporate America 
Epstein Becker Green | Health Law Advisor; by Leah Brownlee Taylor, Erica Sibley Bahnsen, Sarah M. Hall, Andrew Beshai, Alkida Kacani, Gianna Costello; 8/21/26 
On August 13, 2026, the Assistant Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) National Fraud Enforcement Division (the “NFED”), Colin M. McDonald, released a memorandum outlining NFED’s enforcement priorities. The memorandum is the first memo of this kind from NFED. The establishment of NFED earlier this year represented a watershed moment for federal fraud prosecution, as it established DOJ’s first-ever division dedicated exclusively to combating fraud against taxpayer dollars and taxpayer-funded programs. With a stated goal of having 500 prosecutors and staff by August 24, NFED seeks to deploy “cutting-edge data analysis” across a “whole-of-government” effort. The establishment of NFED signals a fundamental shift in federal fraud enforcement, ... The NFED memo identifies five priority areas for federal fraud prosecution:

• Public Trust and Financial Integrity ...
• Health Care ...
• Internal Revenue ...
• Global Trade and Commerce ...
• Corporate Misconduct ...

What an AI-enabled finance function actually looks lik
Highspring; by Bryan Rhody; 8/24/26 
Many finance leaders are asking how AI can create value. The better question is what distinguishes finance functions that successfully scale AI from those still experimenting. 
Key takeaways:

• The most successful AI initiatives begin with clearly defined business outcomes, not technology.
• A modern finance foundation with connected systems, trusted data, and strong governance is essential for scaling AI.
• AI delivers its greatest value when finance teams use the capacity it creates to drive better business decisions.
• AI has become a boardroom priority, and finance leaders are under growing pressure to improve forecasting, accelerate close cycles, and deliver measurable business value.

Ethics of artificial intelligence prognostication in palliative care: perspectives from a national survey of palliative care physicians 
BMJ Supportive Palliative Care; by Ahmed Y Alasmar, Lauren Gunn-Sandell, Stacy M Fischer, Regina M Fink, Elizabeth Juarez-Colunga, Eric G Campbell, Matthew DeCamp; 8/2-/26, online ahead of print 
... Although global consensus is emerging about the importance of ethical principles for artificial intelligence (AI), such as respecting autonomous choice, promoting patient well-being, reducing bias, trust, and more, little is known about how palliative care physicians perceive these issues. This study aims to improve understanding of palliative care physicians' perspectives about the ethics of AI-based prognostication. 
Conclusion: Palliative care physicians see the potential of AI-based prognostication to improve palliative care and also express ethical concerns. Implementation of AI requires context-specific ethical guidance responsive to palliative care, where relationships and communication are paramount.

People who have had little self-reflection live life in a huge reality blind spot. ~ Bryant McGill