Over 150 advocates convene on Capitol Hill to champion care at home 
National Alliance for Care at Home, Alexandria, VA and Washington, DC; Press Release; 9/16/26 
This week, more than 150 care at home advocates from across the country met with 285 congressional offices to discuss key legislative and regulatory priorities for expanding and protecting access to care at home. The meetings were part of the 2026 National Alliance for Care at Home Advocacy Week, an important opportunity to unite the entire care at home continuum under one voice.  

Nearly 700 turn out for St. Charles Running Festival and raises nearly $30K for Hospice of the Chesapeake 
Southern Maryland News Net; by Elizabeth Marcussen; 9/18/26 
Hospice of the Chesapeake was honored to once again to be included as the official charity partner for the St. Charles Running Festival, presented by Lennar. Hundreds of runners, walkers and neighbors gathered on Sept. 12 at the Regency Furniture Stadium in Waldorf, Maryland, for a morning of competition, camaraderie and community giving. ... Once again, the festival rallied to raise tens of thousands of dollars for its official charity partner. With nearly 700 participants and many generous sponsors, the event delivered nearly $30,000 to support patients and families facing serious illness and grief in Charles County. 

The critical competencies hospice leaders must build for value-based care success | part two 
Teleios Collaborative Network (TCN); podcast hosted by Chris Comeaux with Dr. Jessica Hubbs; 9/18/26 
The future of hospice won’t be defined by payment models alone—it will be shaped by leaders who know how to build the clinical capabilities, partnerships, and data infrastructure to thrive within them. In Part Two, host Chris Comeaux continues his conversation with Dr. Jessica Hubbs, exploring what hospice and palliative care organizations must do now to prepare for a more integrated, value-based future.  Dr. Hubbs makes the case that no organization needs to build every capability alone.  Instead, leaders must understand their organization’s readiness, determine where strategic partnerships make sense, and consider how home-based primary care, palliative care, and hospice can work together as a more cohesive continuum of serious illness care.

Fionnuala Crowley on the palliative care gap in oncology: with specialists in short supply, oncology nurses can play a larger role 
Medpage Today; by Jeff Minerd; 9/18/26 
Because many patients with cancer are not receiving adequate palliative care from specialists, primary oncology care teams may need to step up to fill the gap, said authors of a "Comments and Controversies" article in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. "Even if cancer centers have palliative care services, the capacity of these services is often insufficient," Fionnuala Crowley, MD, of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, and colleagues wrote. Furthermore, research suggests that the need for palliative care specialists is outpacing supply and there will be serious shortages by 2040, the team added. 

LA County fraud: stolen IDs fuel California hospice fraud
Film Daily; by Simone Barbon; 9/20/26 
Stolen identities turned Medi-Cal hospice billing into a $267 million cash machine in LA County, with no patients and no care behind any of the claims. California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the arrests last week after Operation Skip Trace dismantled the largest single scheme of its kind. The case shows how dark-web data, shell companies, and weak licensing rules let a handful of operators loot state and federal funds on an industrial scale. The ring bought names, Social Security numbers, and birth dates of non-California residents from dark-web sellers. They used the stolen profiles to open Medi-Cal accounts through Covered California portals. ...

Hospices’ top legislative priorities 
Hospice News; by Jim Parker; 9/18/26
As the midterm elections approach, hospices have unfinished business in the halls of Congress. Providers have identified several high priority pieces of legislation they would like to see passed before this Congress ends in December, according to healthcare leaders attending the National Alliance for Care at Home’s Advocacy Week on Capitol Hill. Most of these are oriented around the common theme of preserving access to home-based care. “Care at home already has bipartisan support and recognition as a cost-effective, patient-preferred solution,” said Jennifer Sheets, CEO of the Alliance, in a statement. “As demand continues to grow, we are committed to being a strong partner with Congress to help federal policy grow with it.”

Capstone University offering Clinical Pastoral Education for hospice and palliative care chaplaincy 
NEWSnet; Press Release; 9/18/26 
Capstone University [in University Place, WA] now offers clinical pastoral education (CPE) with a specific focus on hospice and palliative care chaplaincy. This transformative program centers on spiritual caregiving in response to aging, serious illness, dying, and bereavement. It enables chaplains to deepen their ability to provide culturally responsive, patient-led spiritual care to individuals and families throughout the end-of-life experience. 

Valley Oaks Health awarded $828,375 GROW grant to expand rural health access across northwest central Indiana 
PR Newswire, Lafayette, IN; 9/17/26 
Valley Oaks Health announced today that it has been awarded $828,375 through the Growing Rural Opportunities for Well-being (GROW) Region 3 Grant initiative to strengthen access to integrated healthcare services across rural communities in northwest central Indiana. The funding is part of the Indiana Rural Health Transformation Program (Indiana RHTP), a statewide initiative designed to improve healthcare access, strengthen healthcare infrastructure, promote innovation, and support strategic partnerships that improve the health and well-being of Hoosiers.

2027 trends to watch: Distributed care will drive the next phase of healthcare delivery 
Definitive Healthcare; by Ethan Popowitz; 9/17/26 
Healthcare delivery has never been confined to a single setting. But the number of places where patients can receive care, and the range of services available outside the hospital, have grown in recent years. Today, a single patient journey might include a primary care visit, diagnostic imaging at an outpatient center, a procedure at an ambulatory surgery center (ASC), a virtual follow-up, and remote monitoring from home. ... This more distributed model of healthcare delivery is being shaped by several forces at once, from advances in medical technology and economic pressures to workforce shortages and more. 

Interoperability’s blind spot: What happens to data after systems retire? 
HealthData Management; by Shawn Fichter; 9/18/26 
As healthcare advances FHIR-based exchange and replaces aging applications, interoperability strategies must account for the historical records left behind—ensuring legacy data remains accessible, secure, governed and usable long after its original system leaves production. ...

• The invisible risk of legacy applications ...
• Accountability doesn't retire with the system ...
• What executive leaders should decide now ...

Granddad, 82, to take on 10k as part of family team  
BC News, West of England; by Dawn Limbu; 9/19/26 
An 82-year-old grandfather is set to be the oldest charity runner at this year's annual Run Cheltenham 10k race. Dave Cant, from Cheltenham, will run alongside his two daughters, son-in-law and grandchildren to raise money for Sue Ryder, the palliative care and bereavement charity he has volunteered with for 17 years.

We should not be the same person the day after Yom Kippur that we were the day before Yom Kippur. We should be moving ahead, raising our lives to a higher level. ~ Rabbi Marc D. Angel 
Honoring Yom Kippur 2026, from sunset September 20 to nightfall September 21.