Literature Review

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.

Teleios announces Fifth Annual Care As It Should Be award winners Teleios Collaborative Network (TCN), Hendersonville, NC; by Tina Gentry; 8/19/26 Teleios Collaborative Network (TCN) announced the fifth annual recipients of the Care As It Should Be Awards during the August Board of Directors Meeting. The purpose of the Care As It Should Be Awards is to recognize those individuals who make an extraordinary impact on the patients and families they serve daily. “We recognize that frontline staff consistently provide exceptional care to patients; these awards honor those who elevate that care even further—individuals who go above and beyond to ensure each patient’s experience is as compassionate, meaningful, and supportive as possible during vulnerable and challenging times,” said Chris Comeaux, President and CEO of TCN. The 2026 award recipients are:

CMS hospice payment suspensions slamming vendors Hospice News; by Jim Parker; 8/21/26 ... CMS earlier this year began suspending Medicare payments to hundreds of hospices allegedly due to suspected fraud. ... Evidence indicates that some legitimate hospices were caught up in the dragnet due to patients being discharged for valid reasons, such as a revocation of the benefit, moving out of a provider’s service area or transfer to another hospice. ... These regulatory actions have had a ripple effect on vendors, according to a DME company CEO that spoke to Hospice News on background. “These hospice agencies are being suspended. They’re not getting paid,” the DME CEO told Hospice News. “If they’re not getting paid, their employees are not getting paid. DME providers like us are not getting paid. Pharmacies are not getting paid. Any other contractor they have is not getting paid.” This has placed some vendor businesses in peril, and some of them have been considering layoffs of their own, another DME provider ... told Hospice News, “We’ve been trying to keep everybody on board, keep them employed, keep them paid for as long as we possibly can.”

Hospice of Wichita Falls hosts first Growing Through Grief Symposium KFDX Wichita Falls, TX; by Ashley Waters; 8/22/26 Hospice of Wichita Falls brought licensed professional counselors together for its first Growing Through Grief Symposium. ... "Grief as a child can really significantly impact their development growing up. So we want to try and mitigate that as much as possible and start working with them now," said Hospice of Wichita Falls Children's Program Specialist Sydney Reese. According to the National Alliance for Children's Grief, about 6 million children across the nation experience the death of a parent or sibling by the age of 18. Hospice of Wichita Falls was awarded the 2026 Grief Reach Grant to support childhood grief awareness efforts throughout Texoma [for helping professionals]. 

The phone call that taught me how to grieveMedscape; by Bishal Gyawali, MD, PhD; 8/3/26 Mike (name changed) was one of my favorite patients. We aren’t supposed to have favorites, but we are human. And sometimes you just have that unexplainable bond with someone. ... When I returned from my travels, I learned that Mike had passed away. It was heartbreaking for me. ... When I picked up the phone to call his wife, I had butterflies in my stomach. These calls never get easier. I asked: “Hello, is this Jess? I am Dr. Gyawali from the cancer center.” “Thank you for calling,” she responded, her voice cracking a little. I told her that I knew Mike had passed away. She recounted that day with me. ... She said, “You know, Mike could easily pay to get treated at one of the top cancer centers in the world. But he chose to get treated in Kingston because he liked you and your team here.” As I was getting ready to put the phone down, Jess said, “I’m sorry for your loss, too, Doctor. I know how much he meant to you. I’m happy you were his oncologist. Please take care of yourself, too.” I hung up the phone and cried. ... Immediately after that phone call, I sent a text to some of my trainees: “If your patient dies, always call their family. Always. No exception.”  Then I sat down to write this blog. 

NY Medicaid Revalidation and Enrollment Moratorium: immediate planning considerations for providers JDSupra; by Marc A. Antonucci; 8/20/26 New York Medicaid providers should prepare now for significant changes in provider enrollment oversight. The New York State Department of Health (DOH), following direction from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), will require every Medicaid-enrolled provider in New York to complete revalidation over the next 24 months. The process will require coordination among compliance, operations, billing, finance, governance, and transaction teams. DOH will implement the State’s CMS-approved revalidation strategy through a phased schedule and the Provider Services Portal (PSP). Providers should expect electronic submission requirements, phased notices, detailed ownership and affiliation disclosures, and screening requirements. 

Doctors say they feel pressured to prioritize corporate interests over patients: report HealthcareDive; by Jill Hughes; 8/21/26 Corporate entities, including hospitals and health plans, now employ more than 80% of physicians nationwide, according to the Physicians Advocacy Institute.

‘Light Up a Life’: Rice County approves courthouse trees for Faribault Area Hospice initiative LeSeur County News, Faribault. MN; by Lauren Viska; 8/19/26 For 40 years, Faribault Area Hospice has turned the glow of hundreds of white lights into a celebration of lives well lived. Each light on its traditional “Light Up a Life” tree represents a person remembered, honored and celebrated by those who loved them. Since 1985, Faribault Area Hospice has placed thousands of white lights on a memory tree, with individuals sponsoring a light in memory of someone special. Proceeds from the lights go directly toward helping hospice patients in the Faribault area who are experiencing financial hardship. ... Now, after more than four decades of the tradition, Hospice is looking to bring that familiar glow to a new set of evergreens.

My husband was kicked out of hospice for dying too slowly. Here's what I learned about navigating hospice care. CBS News; by Kim Clark; 8/13/26 It was mid-January 2026, and my then-73-year-old husband, Mike Salmon, had just started bouncing back from a three-month ordeal of three operations related to aortic aneurysms, sepsis, and a terrifying descent into delirium tied to a stay in the intensive care unit. ... Abruptly, we were shunted onto hospice care — the dead-end spur of the American medical system. ... Mike joined that select group. His experience in and out of the hospice system revealed surprising lessons about how families can manage care. And getting removed from hospice revealed a little-known process that can represent a welcome respite for families like ours — but can be devastating for patients with serious chronic illnesses. Here's what we learned in our four months on and off hospice. ...  Editor's Note: The initial descriptions and tone of this caregiver's experience raise significant red flags: ... "Choose one." A hospital nurse handed me a list of local hospice agencies. ... I just pointed to the name at the top of the alphabetical list, assuming they were pretty much the same. ... The problems with the organization I had chosen started immediately. ... Kristina Newport, chief medical officer of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, said I should also have checked the quality ratings on Medicare's Care Compare site and the National Hospice Locator. Those sites would have alerted me to our first agency's low ratings. [Disclosure: Hospice Analytics--the site for the National Hospice Locator and owned by 1520ai--is a sponsor for Hospice & Palliative Care Today.]

NPHI announces “Care You Can Trust” as 2026 National Hospice and Palliative Care Month theme National Partnership for Healthcare and Hospice Innovation (NPHI), Washington, DC; Press Release; 8/12/26 The National Partnership for Healthcare and Hospice Innovation (NPHI) today announced “Care You Can Trust” as the national theme for Hospice and Palliative Care Month 2026, observed throughout November. This year’s campaign will focus on helping patients, families and communities better understand what high-quality hospice and palliative care looks like — and recognizing the dedicated professionals and organizations providing that care every day. At a time when stories of fraud and abuse within the hospice sector have received significant national attention, NPHI believes it is of paramount importance for the public to hear the stories of providers who are delivering care the right way: delivering compassionate, high-quality care, supporting families during some of life’s most difficult moments and serving as trusted and respected partners in their communities. ... To support the campaign, NPHI has launched a comprehensive 2026 Hospice and Palliative Care Month Campaign Hub, with ready-to-use resources for hospice, palliative care and other advanced illness care providers across the country.

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: ...