Literature Review

The new health system CEO job description, per 23 leaders Becker's Hospital Review; by Alan Condon, Kelly Gooch, and Kristin Kuchno; 8/20/26 The health system CEO job description is getting longer, and increasingly filled with responsibilities that barely registered five years ago. Today’s CEOs are expected to steer AI strategy, prepare for cyberattacks, shape culture, advocate in statehouses and on Capitol Hill, protect employees from workplace violence, address affordability and serve as trusted voices in their communities. That shift is playing out at some of the nation’s largest and most prominent health systems. 

In a recent study, most oncologists chose not to assist patients in dying Cancer Therapy Advisor; by Jason L. Harris; 8/19/26 Most oncologists asked to consult with a terminally ill patient seeking medical aid in dying (MAID) choose to opt out, according to research published in JAMA Network Open. In a California-based study, researchers found high rates of oncologists opting out, forcing many patients to pursue MAID with physicians they did not know. Further, a small number of physicians were responsible for most MAID-related prescriptions. “Our dataset likely underestimates these challenges, as it only includes patients who successfully found an attending physician and does not capture instances when opt-out was not documented,” the researchers added.

Nearly one in five Medicare hospice patients now leaves the program alive rather than through death Medical Daily; by Dorothy Brooks; 8/17/26 Almost one in five people who leave Medicare hospice care each year leaves alive rather than through death, and the share has climbed every year since 2021. Federal data released this spring put the live discharge rate at 19.1 percent in fiscal year 2025, up from 16.9 percent four years earlier. For families, this is the rule almost nobody explains at enrollment. Hospice is not a permanent placement. It is a benefit tied to a prognosis, and when that prognosis changes, the benefit can end while the patient is still living, still ill, and still needing care. Understanding it before it happens is the difference between a planned transition and a phone call that lands like an eviction.

Honoring my daughter's final wishes Substack; by Larry Lehmer; 8/7/26 I own one pink shirt. I wear it once a year, on Feb. 28, my daughter’s birthday. It’s mostly her idea. “Please wear more pink!” she wrote for her husband, Paul, to read at her celebration of life. “To the men — you can pull it off.” It’s been three years since Paul had to deliver Meghan’s final words, at the Des Moines Botanical Garden, the same place where they began their married life 13 years earlier. “I once read ‘Love doesn’t die, people do’,” Meghan wrote. “So when love is all that’s left of me, give me away.” Meghan died on Aug. 8, 2023. It still hurts, of course, but we continue to celebrate her life, her devotion to family and try to honor her dying wish “that we all help each other a little more.” Here’s what I wrote about her in August 2023: ...

What end-of-life experts know about living well: love your wrinkles, celebrate birthdays and don’t obsess over work The Guardian; by Sarah Phillips; 8/13/26 We will all face death one day, but our attitude towards this is individual. How can our understanding of mortality shape our approach to life? Here, palliative care doctors and death doulas share what they know about the end – and how it informs the way they live. Prioritize people, not things Dr. Rachel Clarke is a palliative care doctor who works at an NHS hospital in Oxfordshire [England] and is the author of several books, including The Story of a Heart. “I have learned what matters to my patients as they approach the end of their life,” says Clarke. “All the irrelevant stuff is stripped away. No one cares about how much power they had, how big their house is, how fancy their car is, how much status they had at work. What they care about is the people they love.” In short: “The way to live a life that is rich and deeply fulfilling is to build human connections. That matters more than anything else.”

New York's Medical Aid in Dying Act takes effect: what clients and providers need to know JDSupra; by Dana Walsh Sivak; 8/18/26 ... Provider Obligations and Protections

Chapters Health System announces joint venture with Preferred Care The Best Times, Temple Terrace, FL; Press Release; 8/19/26 Chapters Health System announced today the launch of a new joint venture with Preferred Care, a home health agency in Florida, to expand hospice care in Southwest Florida. The partnership creates a new offering through Preferred Care Hospice, which was granted approval through the certificate of need program to offer vital hospice services in Collier County. "The opportunity to work with Preferred Care to help expand hospice services in Florida is the chance to align with an organization that has the same legacy of quality and exceptional service that is deeply rooted in Chapters Health System," said Andrew Molosky, President and CEO, Chapters Health System. 

Compassus CMO: deliver on the hospice promise Hospice News; by Jim Parker; 8/18/26 A patient’s journey towards hospice often begins with a goals-of-care conversation, but those discussions must be timely and effective to truly guide the services a person receives at the end of life. Hospice News spoke with Dr. Kurt Merkelz, M.D., FAAHPM, chief medical officer for Compassus, about the value of these conversations, when they should happen and how clinicians should conduct them. Compassus, one of the nation’s largest hospice providers, is a portfolio company of the private equity firm Towerbrook Capital Partners and the health system Ascension Health.

HHS decertifies Kentucky organ procurement organization Hazard Herald, Hazard, KY; by an Appalachian Newspapers Staff Report; 8/15/26 The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced in a statement Aug. 5 that it has decertified Network For Hope, the federally designated organ procurement organization serving Kentucky and parts of Indiana, Ohio and West Virginia. According to the statement, the move comes after multiple federal reviews found "persistent safety failures despite extensive oversight and despite Network for Hope having been provided repeated opportunities to correct them." The failures, according to the statement, put prospective organ donors and patients awaiting lifesaving transplants at risk.

You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.  ~ Thomas Merton

Victoria Hospice Services, Inc. files Chapter 11 bankruptcy BankruptcyObserver.com, Central District of California; Judge Barry Russell; 8/17/26 Victoria Hospice Services, Inc. is a Whittier, California-based hospice care provider. The company operates a licensed hospice facility, maintains Medicare-certified provider status, and delivers end-of-life and palliative care services to patients throughout Los Angeles and Orange counties. Regulatory records indicate the organization remained  compliant with the fiscal year 2026 Medicare annual payment update. Victoria Hospice Services, Inc. sought relief under Chapter 11 Small Business of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code (Bankr. C.D. Cal. Case No. 26-16812) on July 8, 2026.

When a hospice patient comes to the hospitalICD10monitor; by Tiffany Ferguson, LMSW, CMAC, ACM; 8/17/26 A recent question was posed related to “What happens when a hospice enrolled patient returns to the hospital for emergency or hospital care?” Aside from the initial questions such as “did we even know this patient was on hospice when they roll through the emergency room, or why did they come back to the hospital? The next question may evolve to the following: is the treatment still involving care congruent with the patient’s hospice care plan or has the patient/representative elected to revoke their hospice services? Understanding these distinctions is increasingly important for case management, utilization review, registration, revenue cycle, and especially hospital clinical teams.

Nearly one in five Medicare hospice patients now leaves the program alive rather than through death Medical Daily; by Dorothy Brooks; 8/17/26 Almost one in five people who leave Medicare hospice care each year leaves alive rather than through death, and the share has climbed every year since 2021. Federal data released this spring put the live discharge rate at 19.1 percent in fiscal year 2025, up from 16.9 percent four years earlier. For families, this is the rule almost nobody explains at enrollment. Hospice is not a permanent placement. It is a benefit tied to a prognosis, and when that prognosis changes, the benefit can end while the patient is still living, still ill, and still needing care. Understanding it before it happens is the difference between a planned transition and a phone call that lands like an eviction.