Tuesday's Tools: Linked In
Hospice & Palliative Care Today; by Joy Berger; 9/28/26

You read an article in our newsletter that you want to share with others. Not just colleagues in your organization, but your wider professional network. With a quick click, you can! No copying and pasting. No looking up contact lists. Simply click the "in share" icon next to each of articles and follow the prompts, specific to your LinkedIn account.
What speaks to you today? Our "in share" button is ready.

UGA Disaster Management Institute awarded $3.7M for rural facility resilience 
Valdosta Today, Valdosta, GA and Athens, GA; Press Release; 9/28/26 
The University of Georgia Institute for Disaster Management has been awarded $3.735 million to help harden rural hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and in-patient hospice in Georgia against disasters. Through the Rural Health Transformation Program, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is investing in rural health initiatives across the country. This nationwide initiative includes state-specific programs, including Georgia’s Rural Enhancement and Transformation of Health or GREAT Health Program, led by the Georgia Department of Community Health and supported by CMS.

Industry veteran launches ServingOverSelling movement to encourage health systems to curb promotional marketing 
News Chief, Minneapolis, MN; Press Release; 9/27/26 
Chris Bevolo, former healthcare marketing agency owner, CEO and author of seven books calls on health systems to redirect money from self-promotion. One year after retiring from a 25-year health system marketing career, industry veteran Chris Bevolo has launched ServingOverSelling, a movement that encourages health systems to reallocate their promotional marketing spend and instead put those resources, energy and focus of those institutions back where they belong: on helping the people they exist to serve. The initiative, launched during the 2026 Society for Health Care Strategy & Market Development 2026 Connections Annual Conference, already has a number of signatories to the movement’s pledge for health system marketing leaders to reallocate their promotional marketing spend in whatever way possible.

Dr. Martin McCormack: The healthcare leader connecting education, governance and a safer world Global Healthcare Magazine; September 2026 issue 
Long before he held the title [Chief Executive Officer of the College of Anaesthesiologists of Ireland], ... Dr. Martin McCormack sat with families in the hardest hours of their lives, [as a palliative care physician, trauma counselor with patients and families in intensive care, supervising a team of 36 medical social workers, developing bereavement services]. ... He measures his own leadership less by what has been delivered in any one period than by the capability it leaves behind. Strong people, inclusive institutions, trusted partnerships and systems that learn are, to him, the more meaningful measures of leadership. ... Dr. McCormack has been asking some version of the same question that has remained consistent throughout his career: What does this person need from the system around them, and how do we build it so it holds? 

What is end-of-life care at home? A complete guide for families 
exeleon | Healthcare; 9/28/26 
A study published in Federal Practitioner in September 2025, using data from the CDC WONDER database, found that home was the most common place of death among cancer patients between 2003 and 2023, accounting for 40.3% of all recorded deaths. ... This guide walks through what services are typically included, how eligibility works, and what separates in-home support from care delivered in a facility. Along the way, it covers home care for end of life planning, the difference between hospice and general end-of-life support, and practical steps for arranging services quickly.

How caregivers can prepare for a loved one’s final days 
AARP; by Paul Wynn; 9/28/26 
When Dr. Chris Kerr’s mother was dying, he had the kind of experience that can change the way a doctor thinks about death. Kerr had spent decades caring for people at the end of life as a palliative care doctor in the Buffalo, New York, area. But when his mother, Shirley, became seriously ill, he experienced death through the lens of a son and a caregiver... “My lasting memory of my mother is her strong connection to her parents,” says Kerr, author of Death Is But a Dream and chief medical officer of Hospice and Palliative Care Buffalo. “It took me a while, but I realized that I had to stop trying to play doctor and just be there for her.”

Medicare fraud crackdown: what recent enforcement actions tell providers 
JD Supra; by Adam Appleberry; 9/28/26 
... Over the past several months, CMS and DOJ have announced a series of enforcement actions involving billions of dollars in suspected or allegedly improper Medicare claims. Although the cases involve different types of providers and different alleged conduct, several themes are beginning to emerge. ...

• Medicare Advantage Remains a Major Enforcement Target ...
• CMS Is Increasingly Trying to Stop Payments Before They Happen ...
• Durable Medical Equipment Is Under Particularly Heavy Scrutiny ...
• Medical Necessity and Kickbacks Remain A Focus ...
• CMS Is Also Using Enrollment as an Enforcement Tool ...
• The Scale of Enforcement Is Growing ...
• What Recent Medicare Fraud Enforcement Actions Tell Providers ...

EvergreenHealth receives transformative $100M gift from Dean Weidner 
The Bee, Kirkland, WA; Press Release; 9/28/26 EvergreenHealth has received a philanthropic gift of $100 million from Dean Weidner—the largest gift in the community-owned hospital’s history. This transformative donation helps accelerate EvergreenHealth’s plans to advance high-quality health care in the community with expanded access and increased capacity for generations to come. The gift honors the legacy of Dean Weidner and his wife, Ana, both dedicated philanthropists and advocates for EvergreenHealth’s mission to advance the health of the community through safe, compassionate, cost-effective health care. ...EvergreenHealth is two-hospital health system with a network of primary care practices, urgent care centers, specialty clinics, extensive home care and hospice services, and 24/7 emergency care in Kirkland, Monroe and Redmond.

A Florida social worker stole $68,000 from an Alzheimer’s patient, state says 
The Miami Herald | The Lawton Constitution; by David J. Neal; 9/28/26 
What was in a social worker’s wallet? A Capital One card on which she made almost $100,000 worth of payments, West Palm Beach police say, by ripping off an Alzheimer’s patient and a dying patient under her care. In Palm Beach County court, Port St. Lucie’s Megan Bernat pleaded not guilty to criminal charges of exploitation of an elderly person and money laundering in the case involving the deceased patient. ... Professionally, Bernat didn’t bother to answer a Florida Department of Health administrative complaint detailing the charges in the Alzheimer patient’s case. So, the Board of Clinical Social Work, Marriage and Family Therapy and Mental Health Counseling revoked her license on Wednesday.

Hundreds reach out after beloved artist Phil Ponder enters hospice care
The Tennessean, Nashville, TN; by Brad Schmitt and Andy Humbles; 9/26/26
Phil Ponder started writing a love letter to Nashville in the 1980s with his popular watercolor paintings of the downtown skyline. When he entered hospice care in early September at 93, the city he has spent decades celebrating has been sending that love back. Family members have brightened his days by reading from the hundreds of tributes from friends and loved ones whose lives Ponder has enriched. ... On Sept. 25, several Metro Council members opened the Phil Ponder Conference Room, which has more than 10 Ponder artwork prints on the walls. 

Inside "Good Grief," Sara Bareilles' new album and documentary 
Public Broadcasting System (PBS) | Amanpour & Co.; video interview of Sara Bareilles and Josh Alexander; 9/22/26 
Musician Sara Bareilles has had a difficult few years. Behind the glamour of her successful music career, she has been dealing with loss. Her new album "Good Grief," and a documentary about its making, speak to the will to overcome. The album is out now and the doc, "Sara Bareilles: Good Grief," is available to watch on Kinema. Bareilles and her director, Josh Alexander, speak out about the journey.

Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean. ~ Ryunosuke Satoro