Literature Review

Longtime Delaware Hospice CEO Susan Lloyd to retire Delaware Business Times, Milford, DE; by Jennifer Antonik; 5/21/25 Susan Lloyd says the team at Delaware Hospice took a chance on her 38 years ago when the young nursing administrator became its newest CEO. Now, she’s gearing up for a new challenge – retirement. Delaware Hospice first began offering services in the First State just five years before Lloyd took the role over after several organizational changeovers in that short amount of time. “There was a lot of nervousness about, ‘Is this CEO going to stay?’ I think I added some stability and home health care knowledge which I knew about from a previous position. This was a brand-new concept here and Delaware Hospice was just getting started. It was just a tremendous opportunity to grow hospice services throughout the state,” Lloyd recalled. ... Over the course of those 38 years of stability, the nonprofit she grew to love and cherish grew along with her, now boasting around 400 volunteers, more than 300 employees and programs going far beyond home-based hospice care to include a standalone hospice facility in Milford, as well as cardiac care, palliative care, dementia care, advance care planning and grief support.Editor's note: Susan, we thank you for your immeasurable contributions to the evolution and growth of hospice and palliative care. As you move into this new life-chapter, may we continue to learn from you and the excellence you ensured through Delaware Hospice.

“A different way of looking at how you can age in America” AJMC; by Maggie L. Shaw; 5/21/25

What caregivers should know about end-of-life rallies  AARP; by Jamie Ducharme; 5/19/25People with advanced illnesses sometimes experience unpredictable bursts of energy or clarity. Here’s how caregivers should handle these episodes. Roughly a decade after her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, Liz Donnarumma got her back — but only for an instant. It happened one evening in 2021, more than a year after Donnarumma first realized her mother, Theresa, didn’t recognize her. Theresa took Donnarumma’s face in her hands, called her by her nickname and thanked her. “When she put her hands on my face and I looked into her eyes, she was totally there. It was my mother,” Donnarumma says. “It was like a second, just one second, and it was gone.” Donnarumma’s mother had an episode of “paradoxical lucidity” — that is, an unexpected burst of mental clarity, despite her advanced condition. While these moments are as unexplained as they are unexpected, experts say they are more common than many people realize. ...

UnitedHealth urges shareholders to back CEO’s $60M pay package Becker's Payer Issues; by Rylee Wilson; 5/20/25 UnitedHealth Group is asking shareholders to support a $60 million stock option award for its new CEO. In a May 20 letter to shareholders, Christopher Zaetta, UnitedHealth’s chief legal officer, urged shareholders to approve the company’s executive compensation. Institutional Shareholder Services, a proxy advisory firm, has advised shareholders to vote no on UnitedHealth’s “say-on-pay” proposal. The company appointed Stephen Hemsley, who led the company from 2006 to 2017, as CEO in May. Mr. Hemsley will receive a $1 million annual salary, but will not receive any annual cash incentives. Instead, he will receive a $60 million stock option after three years as CEO. ISS recommended shareholders vote no because nearly all of Mr. Hemsley’s compensation will be in stock option awards, and fluctuations in stock price could lead to a “windfall” for the CEO. 

It's not how much we give but how much love we put into giving. ~ Mother Theresa

Hospice Buffalo begins $3.5M expansion at Cheektowaga campus  Buffalo Business First, Buffalo, NY; by Tracey Drury; 5/21/25 An end-of-life donation is funding an expansion at Hospice Buffalo's campus in Cheektowaga. Hospice Buffalo has begun a renovation at its Cheektowaga campus to create an education center. The Andrew J. & Mary Ann Dodges Center will include offices, conference rooms and educational space accessible through a dedicated entrance inside an existing 15,000-square-foot patient services building. The $3.5 million construction project includes renovating 6,000 square feet of underutilized space on the campus at 225 Como Park Blvd. Andrew Dodges, then 95, made a pledge of $6 million in 2023 to fund a center. Dodges was a Buffalo resident whose wife received services through the organization in the 1990s. A portion of the gift also funded the Andrew J. and Mary Ann Dodges fund to support hospice care for others in the community.

Navigating the Future: HOPE, Wage Index, and CMS Quality Measures Teleios Collaborative Network (TCN; podcast by Chris Comeaux with Annette Kiser and Judi Lund Person; 5/21/25 What happens when ancient philosophical questions about "the good life" collide with modern healthcare regulations?  In this compelling episode of TCNtalks, host Chris Comeaux welcomes Hospice leaders Annette Kiser, Chief Compliance Officer with Teleios, and Judi Lund Person, Principal, Lund Person & Associates LLC,  for a deep dive into the regulatory crossroads facing hospice providers. In this episode,  we discuss the FY 2026 Proposed Rule, which focused on implementing the HOPE initiative, and two RFIs (Requests for Information) that were part of it. 

How 24 rural hospitals look to improve value-based care Modern Healthcare; by Alex Kacik; 5/15/25 Two dozen critical access hospitals in Montana have created a clinically integrated network, following similar rural provider-led coalitions in other states. The Yellowstone High Value Network, announced Thursday, looks to improve independent rural hospitals’ care models while also lowering their costs. The network, which resembles coalitions launched in Ohio, Minnesota and North Dakota through rural hospital advisory firm Cibolo Health, is designed to give hospitals the combined patient volume and technology infrastructure to expand alternative payment models that are tailored to the rural communities where they operate.

The skills CEOs are building in 2025Becker's Hospital Review; by Kristin Kuchno; 5/20/25 Hospital and health system CEOs are building new leadership skills — many of which were not viewed as a priority earlier in their careers. While health systems continue to focus on workforce-wide skills development, such as leadership skills for succession planning, today’s executives are zeroing in on new capabilities to meet evolving demands. Becker’s connected with four hospital and health system CEOs to learn which skills they are actively working on in 2025. 

Hospice visits and perceived hospice quality among Assisted Living residents Journal of the American Geriatrics Society; by Wenhan Guo, Shubing Cai, Yue Li, Brian E. McGarry, Thomas V. Caprio, Helena Temkin-Greener; 5/19/25 Background: Hospice services are widely used by assisted living residents at the end of life, yet concerns exist about the adequacy and quality of hospice care in this setting. Conclusions: Higher frequency of hospice staff visits was associated with better perceived hospice quality. Policies supporting greater hospice staff engagement, including nonclinical staff, may enhance end-of-life care experiences for assisted living residents.

[Commentary] It’s time to bring value-based care principles to hospice Medical Economics; by Asher Perzigian; 5/20/25 In the health care industry, the conversation around value-based care (VBC) has been abuzz for a while now. The idea is simple: pay for outcomes, not for services, and shift our mindset from volume to value as we reduce unnecessary care, improve outcomes and bend the cost curve. However, when we talk about VBC, we often overlook a critical part of the health care continuum: hospice care. And when it comes to end-of-life care, traditional measures like survival rates and reduced readmissions lose their relevance. Hospice embodies some of the deepest principles of VBC: aligning care with patient goals, avoiding unneeded interventions and supporting the person as a whole. Here’s what primary care physicians need to know about the integration of value-based principles in hospice care. 

The government should invest now in healthcare cybersecurity, says HSCC Healthcare IT News / HIMSS Media; by Andrea Fox; 5/20/25 Financially-constrained hospitals and health systems need federal funding and support to augment their cybersecurity workforces, according to a Health Sector Coordinating Council report to HHS. Funding shortfalls and workforce shortage leave small, rural and resource-constrained healthcare providers especially vulnerable to ransomware attacks that disrupt care delivery. That's a reality that cannot be ignored, according to a new report, prepared for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, by the Health Sector Coordinating Council's Cybersecurity Working Group. 

Santa Maria woman sentenced to 10+ years for stealing from elderly clients NBC KSBY-6, California's Central Coast; by KSBY Staff; 5/20/25 A former Santa Barbara County investment advisor was sentenced Monday to just over 10 years in federal prison for stealing millions of dollars from elderly clients of her investment advisory business in the Santa Maria area. Julie Darrah, 52, of Santa Maria, ran an investment advisory business called Vivid Financial Management Inc. (VFM). ... Prosecutors say she stole approximately $2.25 million from her clients between November 2016 and July 2023. ... In December 2024, a U.S. District judge found her liable to pay back her clients $2,416,511. Department of Justice (DOJ) officials say Darrah abused the trust her victims placed in her, accusing the defendant of manipulating her elderly clients into believing she would take care of them in their older years, like a daughter. Darrah would then use this trust to persuade her victims to sign documents giving her the ability to transfer funds from their bank accounts into other accounts, including her own. Some of her victims were reportedly left in desperate circumstances, without the money to pay for needed end-of-life care. ... Anyone who thinks they may be a victim of financial fraud can contact the National Elder Fraud Hotline at 1-833-FRAUD-11.