Literature Review

Families whose loved ones were left decaying in Colorado funeral home owed $950M, payout unlikelyAP [Denver, CO]; by Jesse Bedayn; 8/5/24The Colorado funeral home owners who allegedly stored 190 decaying bodies and sent grieving families fake ashes were ordered by a judge to pay $950 million to the victims’ relatives in a civil case, the attorney announced Monday. The judgment is unlikely to be paid out since the owners, Jon and Carie Hallford, have been in financial trouble for years. They also face hundreds of criminal charges in separate state and federal cases, including abuse of a corpse, and allegations they took $130,000 from families for cremations and burials they never provided.

Hospice patient and wife renew marriage vows in special silver anniversary ceremony[MS] WDAM; By Charles Herrington; 8/3/24Buddy and Sonja Myers celebrated 25 years of marriage with a special ceremony at Life Church. The couple renewed their vows during that ceremony. The ceremony was arranged by caregivers at ComfortCare Hospice of Laurel. Buddy Myers has cancer and is a hospice patient. “We went to the Justice of the Peace and got married, and I still laugh at Buddy to this day because he was repeating the vows to the judge and the judge said, ‘You’re not marrying me, tell her,’” Sonja Myers said... The Myers were married on June 8, 2000. Sonja Myers wanted to wear a wedding dress as they planned to renew their vows. That’s when caregivers at ComfortCare Hospice stepped in. “After I got to talking with the family, it came to me that (Sonja) wanted to walk down an aisle next year, at their 25th (anniversary) and so, I started contemplating for a little while and thinking about it and was like, ‘We could make that happen a little early,’” said Raven Anderson, a registered nurse with ComfortCare Hospice.

How systems are changing compensation to attract executive talentModern Healthcare; by Caroline Hudson; 8/6/24Organizations are paying higher salaries, reassessing incentives, redefining leadership roles and investing more in key positions to optimize operations, according to SullivanCotter. The firm provides data from more than 2,100 health systems, hospitals, medical groups and health plans for Modern Healthcare’s 2024 Executive Compensation Survey. Here are five takeaways from the survey findings.

4 Ways servant leaders can inspire professional development in the workplaceForbes; by Edward DeAngelis; 8/5/24Servant leadership is very important to me. As business leaders, we strive to build natural and genuine relationships with our workforce, ideally to empower them, as people within the organization, and, in a collective sense, to demonstrate to each individual that the organization, as an entity, recognizes and appreciates…everyone. To support employee retention and performance, leaders must make engaging with their teams a priority. Employees who feel appreciated and acknowledged may not only stay with an organization and be more productive and positive, but also improve customer experiences, increased sales and profitability for the entire organization. ... Here are four ways servant leaders can inspire and support employee development.

Today's Heartwarming Story [Northern Illinois hospice patient takes the ride of his life]

Blumenthal & Barragán introduce bicameral legislation to improve end-of-life carePress release; 8/1/24U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and U.S. Representative Nanette Barragán (D-CA) today introduced the Compassionate Care Act, legislation to promote advance care planning and end-of-life care. Many Americans do not have plans in place in the event they experience severe illness. In order to help patients access the care they need and that is right for them, the Compassionate Care Act provides critical resources to educate patients and providers, develop core end-of-life quality measures, and expand access to advance care planning via telehealth.

What drives health spending in the U.S. compared to other countries?Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker; By Emma Wager Twitter, Shameek Rakshit, Cynthia Cox; 8/2/24The United States spends significantly more on healthcare than comparable countries do, and yet has worse health outcomes. Much of the national conversation has focused on spending on retail prescription drugs and insurer profits and administrative costs as key drivers of health spending in the United States. The Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by President Biden in 2022, includes several provisions aimed at lowering the cost of these prescription drugs. While it is true that many brand-name retail prescription drugs are priced higher in the U.S. than in peer countries, health spending data indicates that other spending categories – particularly hospital and physician payments – are primary drivers of the U.S.’s higher health spending. This brief examines the drivers of health spending and differences between the U.S. and its peers – other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) nations that are similarly large and wealthy. In 2021, the U.S. spent nearly twice as much per capita on health as these comparable countries did. Most of the additional dollars the U.S. spends on health go to providers for inpatient and outpatient care. The U.S. also spends more on administrative costs, and significantly less on long-term care. [Long-term care spending includes health and social services provided in long-term care institutions such as nursing homes as well as home- and community-based settings.] ... In 2021, the U.S. spent nearly twice as much on health per person as comparable countries ($12,197 compared to $6,514 per person, on average).

CMS rule will align hospitals with age-friendly care for older adultsBecker's Clinical Leadership; by Ashleigh Hollowell; 8/2/24Starting in 2025, a new CMS measure will require public reporting on a hospital's capability to provide age-appropriate care for older adults, the agency announced Aug. 1. The measure is included as part of its FY2025 Inpatient Prospective Payment Systems final rule. Hospitals that participate in Medicare's Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting Program must begin to report on how they meet each element across five areas, the John A. Hartford Foundation explained via a news release shared with Becker's:

CMS 2025 Hospice Final Rule: Additional Responses

Bluegrass Care Navigators receives grant award from Disabled Veterans National FoundationAppalachian News-express; 8/5/24Bluegrass Care Navigators announced in a statement it has received a grant from the Disabled Veterans National Foundation for $18,000 which will allow BCN to focus its Integrative Medicine therapies on serving more of veteran patients.

Avow Kids Receives Transformational Gift From Naples Children & Education FoundationAvow Hospice press release; 7/23/24Avow Foundation has received a generous grant of $115,000 from the Naples Children & Education Foundation (NCEF), the founding organization of the Naples Winter Wine Festival. The grant is specifically intended for Avow Kids, a program for children ages 5 - 17 that provides support and companionship to youth experiencing any type of grief. The grant will support Avow Kids’ various services, such as individual counseling, support groups, workshops, camps, music therapy, movie nights, and more.

10 Steps to Creating a Data-Driven CultureHarvard Business Review; by David Waller; 2/6/20Exploding quantities of data have the potential to fuel a new era of fact-based innovation in corporations, backing up new ideas with solid evidence. Buoyed by hopes of better satisfying customers, streamlining operations, and clarifying strategy, firms have for the past decade amassed data, invested in technologies, and paid handsomely for analytical talent. Yet for many companies a strong, data-driven culture remains elusive, and data are rarely the universal basis for decision making. Why is it so hard? ... So we’ve distilled 10 data commandments to help create and sustain a culture with data at its core.

‘Restored faith in humanity:’ What’s it like to volunteer at Mercy Health Hospice of the Valley?[OH] Mahoning Matters; by Kelcey Norris; 8/5/24Jennifer Burgoyne, Hospice of the Valley’s volunteer coordinator, described the volunteering experience as getting “a paycheck of the heart.”