Literature Review

Beyond the bottle: a whole person approach to pain management for veterans enrolled in inpatient hospice Medscape; by Tracy Shamas, APRN, MSN, ACHPN, Andrea Ruskin, MD, HEC-C, and Alexandra Laffer, PhD; 9/9/26 Background: ... Veterans Affairs inpatient hospice units are uniquely positioned to implement non-pharmacological pain interventions due to longer lengths of stay and broader resources compared to Medicare GIP-regulated settings. This quality improvement project aims to support the uptake and utilization of non-pharmacological pain management interventions for veterans receiving inpatient hospice care. ... Conclusions: Initial findings show that veterans with pain at end-of-life express interest in holistic non-pharmacological options, and integrating these approaches is feasible within inpatient hospice care. ... 

When the end of life feels like a beginning: a hospice encounter raises questions medicine can't answerBroadview; by Ralph Klose; 9/8/26 As a retired neuropsychologist and longtime hospice companion, I often wonder what can still be measured at the end of life — and what cannot. ... Magda had lived in the hospice for three months. A former violinist, she rarely spoke about her past. But her hands still moved in gentle arcs, as if drawing invisible phrases from the air. ... One afternoon, I entered her room and paused. The air felt different — not cold, not scented, but bright. The blinds were closed. No sunlight entered. And still, the space around her shimmered faintly, like a curtain of breath. Her skin looked translucent. Her lips moved, but no sound came. Later, as I sat quietly at her bedside, a nurse whispered, “She’s speaking with someone.” There was no theology in her gestures. No visions of angels. But something had changed — as if a second world had unfolded beside the first, not replacing it, but resting gently alongside. ...

How Caledonia is using a community festival to redefine end-of-life planning McKnights Senior Living; by Kimberly Bonvissuto; 9/7/26 A first-of-its-kind festival aims to bring “deathcare” back into the fabric of community life by reducing fears and stress tied to the end of life. Caledonia Senior Living & Memory Care in North Riverside, IL,  is partnering with Wally’s Hearth, a Chicago nonprofit working to establish the state’s first social model hospice home, to host Telling the Bees Fest: A Chicagoland Deathcare Education & Resource Festival. The festival is designed to foster “honest, compassionate conversations about death, caregiving, planning, grief, remembrance and what it means to care for one another through the full human experience,” according to organizers.

Our Hospice collects $110K at Labor Day weekend concert Jennings County KORN 97.7 & 1460 AM, Columbus, IN; 9/8/26This year's Our Hospice Concert returned to the Bartholomew County Public Library on Saturday, September 5, for an afternoon of music benefiting Our Hospice of South Central Indiana. Community partners, raffle participants, sponsors, benefactors, and attendees raised over $110,000 for Our Hospice patients and their loved ones. The 40th Annual Our Hospice Concert came back to the library steps in downtown Columbus, where the tradition began in 1987.

Croí Health Hospice residence renamed to include Barbara Roch Access Newswire, Hingham, MA; Press Release; 9/8/26 On September 8, Croí Health officially unveils a new sign renaming the Pat Roche Hospice Home in Hingham, MA, to the Barbara and Pat Roche Hospice Home. The change honors the generosity of the couple, co-founders of the Roche Bros. supermarket chain, who helped make the residence possible. The Pat Roche Hospice Home first opened in 2013 as the region's first hospice residence, named for Patrick Roche following his passing in 2012. The organization is now expanding that tribute to include his wife, Barbara, who passed in November. The Roche family has long supported Croí Health's mission to expand access to hospice and palliative care across the 27 South Shore towns it serves.

A growing Bay County deserves more choices in compassionate care | guest column Panama City News Herald, Panama City, FL; by Julie Head; 9/6/26 Bay County’s remarkable growth has brought new neighborhoods, businesses and opportunities. But as our population grows and ages, more families will face serious illness, care for aging parents and make difficult health care decisions. A community’s strength is measured not only by how it welcomes new residents, but also by how it supports people during life’s most vulnerable moments. That's why conversations about hospice, and access to it, matter. ... For nearly 45 years, Big Bend Hospice has served North Florida from its roots in Tallahassee as a community-based nonprofit. We expanded into Bay County because we saw a growing need for nonprofit hospice care. Before opening our doors, we spent months listening. ...

CMS recalculating 2027 hospice payment rates due to errorHospice News; by Jim Parker; 9/8/26 The 2027 hospice payment rates likely will change based on a technical error by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The agency made a mistake that affected the Fiscal Year 2027 hospice wage index and has recalculated those numbers. CMS is in the process of developing a correction notice to update the wage index and hospice payment rates for all four levels of care. This will not require another proposed rule.

Hospice has ‘strong’ 2026 M&A outlook Hospice News; by Jim Parker; 9/4/26 Hospice merger and acquisition volume has regained momentum and is rapidly approaching pre-pandemic levels. For hospice, 48 deals took place in 2019, according to the M&A advisory firm The Braff Group. This was followed by the record-breaking years of 2020 through 2022, in which nearly 70 hospice transactions completed annually. Then hospice M&A entered a lull. In 2023, only 25 deals took place. The market began to pick up steam again in the fourth quarter of 2025, and that has continued through 2026, according to Mark Kulik, senior managing director of the M&A advisory firm The Braff Group.

LeadingAge, coalition partners tell CMS: don’t punish good Medicare providers LeadingAge, Washington, DC; contact Colleen Knudsen; 8/31/26 In a joint sign-on letter led by LeadingAge, the association of nonprofit and mission-driven providers of aging services and submitted to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) today, a coalition of 19 partners representing hospitals, physician and clinician practices, post-acute and long-term care providers, home health and hospice agencies, suppliers, and the beneficiaries served by all, warn the agency that the proposed changes to Medicare provider enrollment provisions, included in the Calendar Year (CY) 2027 Home Health Prospective Payment System (PPS) Rule, risk penalizing legitimate providers and could result in limiting beneficiary access to care. The coalition fundamentally supports CMS’ responsibility to protect the Medicare Trust Fund and beneficiaries from fraud, waste, and abuse. However, ...

Dolly Parton’s 10 leadership lessons for business executives Forbes; by Edward Segal; 8/27/26 Dolly Parton, who [recently died] at age 80, demonstrated her expertise in managing and communicating about a crisis. She also leaves behind several leadership lessons for business executives. ...

Hospice care has increased in Minnesota, but some nurses are set to strike MINNPOST; by Maddie Robinson; 9/4/26 Allina Health hospice nurses are demanding better pay and more manageable caseloads as demand for care has grown statewide. After more than a year of contract negotiations and on the heels of a one-day strike in early July, Allina Health hospice nurses are set to strike for one week starting September 11 after union members said the hospital did not adequately address employee concerns about raises, staffing and caseloads. More than 60 Allina nurses in the SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa union voted unanimously to authorize the strike August 21. After additional contract negotiations with a federal mediator a week later did not pan out for either party, the union announced on August 31 their 10-day notice to strike, during which time contract negotiations will continue. 

Caregiver's relationship with grandmother goes viral Today Show; by Morgan Chesky; 9/7/26 Twenty-four-year-old Grace Yockey and her grandmother Vava, have gone viral online for their adorable adventures together as roommates, all while shining a powerful light on young caregivers. NBC’s Morgan Chesky reports for TODAY.