Literature Review

Empath Health completes Trustbridge integration, creating Florida's largest non-profit hospice network and expanding home-based care vision Empath Health, Lakewood Ranch, FL; Press Release; 4/6/26 Empath Health today announced the completion of Trustbridge's integration into its statewide network, finalizing a two-year affiliation that makes Empath Florida's largest non-profit hospice network and positions the organization to serve one in five hospice patients in Florida. ... Both will carry forward under the name Empath Trustbridge Hospice. ... Empath Trustbridge Hospice joins Empath Health's One Hospice Model alongside Empath Suncoast Hospice in the Tampa Bay region, Empath Tidewell Hospice on the Southwest Florida coast, and Empath Hospice of Marion County in Ocala, four legacy non-profit organizations with 40 to 50 years of community roots ...

Agrace expands to serve southeastern Wisconsin PR Newswire, Milwaukee, WI; by Agrace; 4/2/26 Agrace, the largest Wisconsin-based nonprofit hospice, has expanded to serve the entire southern half of Wisconsin with the addition of Ozaukee, Washington, Racine and Kenosha counties to its Milwaukee service region. ... Southeastern Wisconsin Agrace patients are served through its regional office in Wauwatosa by a care team that includes a local hospice physician, nurses, CNAs, volunteers and a spiritual & grief counselor.

Carolina Caring, nationally-recognized serious illness care provider, expands services to Davie County Carolina Caring, Davie County, NC; Press Release; 4/1/26 Carolina Caring, the nonprofit serious illness care provider serving Western North Carolina and the Charlotte Region, announces an expansion of services into Davie County. Carolina Caring is one of the first 3 hospice organizations established in North Carolina and has remained committed to the mission of providing high-quality, compassionate care for more than 45 years. The organization continues to evolve to meet the growing needs and expectations of the populations it serves. The expansion into Davie County follows a period of significant organizational growth and distinction.

QIM26-302: Hospice at the bedside: A Quality Improvement Initiative to improve end of life care and reduce inpatient mortality in a cancer center Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network - JNCCN; by Matthew Murphy, Jacqueline Young, Hardik Thakkar, Sean Powell, Timothy Hembree, and David Buxton; 3/31/26 ...  Patients dying in the hospital may not survive transfer to external hospice units. ...  Integration of GIP Hospice beds into the hospital has streamlined delivery of timely, comprehensive EoL care for patients and bereavement support for families. The collaborative care model allows the hospital-based team to deliver care with active support from the hospice agency. Families express appreciation for the program, especially in situations when the patient is not stable for transfer.  

CMS Hospice Wage Index Panel: Key insights for access, staffing, and care delivery Abt Global | Centers for Medicare & Medicaid; by Michael Plotzke, T.J. Christian, Matt Knowles, and Anne St. George; meeting held on 9/10/25, report  published 11/24/25The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released both a summary and technical report from its September 2025 Technical Expert Panel on the hospice wage index—offering a closer look at how geographic wage adjustments may evolve. Beyond methodology, the reports carry meaningful clinical and operational implications. Refinements to the wage index influence how resources are distributed across regions, shaping workforce capacity, interdisciplinary team stability, and ultimately patient access to timely, high-quality hospice care. For leaders, these findings underscore the connection between payment policy and bedside realities—particularly in rural and underserved areas where recruitment, retention, and care continuity remain fragile.

New L+M hospice unit seeks to provide peace, comfort for patients and families The Day, New London, CT; by John Penney; 3/27/26 Down a long sixth-floor corridor that passes through Lawrence + Memorial Hospital’s oncology unit are three rooms that for its patients are the last they’ll ever enter. Those recently refurbished patient rooms, along with a renovated family room, comprise the hospital’s new dedicated hospice space where those at the end of their lives — along with their loved ones — are made comfortable by a team of nurses and other caregivers. ... The creation of the new unit began in the fall and included transforming an office into a family room located just steps from the patient spaces.

State POLST program maturity status and dying in the nursing home or hospice in the United States: An event time studyJournal of the American Medical Directors Association; by Komal Patel Murali, May Hua, Patricia W Stone, Andrew Dick, Tadeja Gracner; 2/26State Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) programs ensure documentation of orders for treatment are documented for the provision of goal-concordant care at the end of life. The national POLST organization tracks the maturity stages of state programs and categorizes them as developed (beginning of use) and endorsed (benchmarks and standardized use). Examining the association between POLST program maturation and the likelihood of dying in place can help clarify how implementation stage may affect end-of-life care and place of death. POLST program maturity is associated with a higher likelihood of NH residents dying in place or in hospice, potentially supporting goal-concordant care and reducing burdensome hospital transfers near the end of life.

Otterbein Universal Hospice expands services into Franklin and Licking counties The Warren County Post, Lebanon, OH; by Beth Callahan; 3/17/26 Otterbein SeniorLife is pleased to announce the expansion of Otterbein Universal Hospice services into Franklin and Licking counties, extending its mission of compassionate, person-centered end‐of‐life care to more communities across the greater Columbus region. Otterbein Universal Hospice, part of the Otterbein SeniorLife organization, has a strong legacy of leadership in hospice care and is one of three Otterbein hospice agencies collectively serving 25 counties across Ohio. 

CMS clarifies hospice revocations, face-to-face encounters McKnights Home Care; by Suzy Frisch; 3/24/26 If a hospice patient is discharged from care or has their benefits revoked, they do not have to complete a waiting period to arrange for new care, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which provided such clarifications earlier this month. If a hospice patient is discharged from care or has their benefits revoked, they do not have to complete a waiting period to arrange for new care, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which provided such clarifications earlier this month. 

Mercy Hospice House reopens after five month hiatus Durango Herald, Durango, CO; by Elizabeth Pond; 3/21/26 The Mercy Hospice House, an end of life care wing of Mercy Hospital, officially reopened this week after a five-month-long closure, according to a Monday news release by Mercy’s owner, CommonSpirit Health. The hospital wing temporarily closed because of a change in outpatient service ownership and a required licensing review, a CommonSpirit spokesperson told The Durango Herald in November. The facility transferred leadership of outpatient services to its national entity, CommonSpirit Health at Home, on a for-profit basis in October, with inpatient ownership remaining under its original regional leadership and nonprofit model.

Regional pediatric Education and Assistance Collaborative for Hospice nurses (REACH): A tele-educational intervention Journal of Hospice and Palliative Nursing; by Taylor Aglio, Alexa Bobelis, Ashley Autrey, Tracy Hills, Alexandra Superdock, Arshia Madni, Kelly Bien, Nidhi Mali, Erica C Kaye; 3/20/26... To address [the gaps between hospice care for seriously ill children and their families and adult-focused hospice paradigms], a multidisciplinary team comprising physicians, nurses, psychosocial clinicians, community members, and bereaved parents was convened to develop the Regional Pediatric Education and Assistance Collaborative for Hospice Nurses (REACH) initiative. Using a community-based participatory research approach, a stakeholder-driven tele-educational intervention was designed, refined, and implemented as a pilot for hospice nurses across Tennessee. Pilot data showed this hub-and-spoke model to be feasible, acceptable, and impactful, increasing hospice nurses' knowledge and comfort with provision of pediatric care in the community.

Hospice organizations call for Medicare provider enrollment moratorium in California Hospice News; by Jim Parker; 3/20/26 A coalition of hospice and home health industry stakeholders are calling for a statewide moratorium in California on provider enrollments due to widespread Medicare fraud. A key area of focus is the greater Los Angeles County area. The group of providers and associations has written to U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz saying that rampant fraud in the state requires federal intervention. The signatories on the letter included the Save Home Health Coalition, California Hospice and Palliative Care Association (CHAPCA) and Texas Association for Home Care and Hospice (TAHCH).