Literature Review

My parents moved in with us before my dad got sick. It made all the difference when he passed. Business Insider; by Justin Murphy; 6/27/26

Solace Hospice suspends opening amid Medicare moratorium Hospice News; by Holly Vossel; 6/25/26 The launch of Solace Hospice of Southwest Virginia has paused due to a nationwide temporary moratoria on hospice and home health Medicare enrollment. The hospice’s operations will be suspended for an indeterminate time. The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) six-month moratoria took effect on May 13, a move to halt new providers amid fraudulent activity in the hospice space. The program’s cessation is a direct result of the moratorium, said Shanna Western, founder and executive director of Solace Hospice of Southwest Virginia.

Pediatric home-based hospice and palliative care: A scoping reviewBMC Palliative Care; by Ellen Davis, Daniel H Grossoehme, Toluwalase Ajayi, Justin N Baker, Pamela S Hinds, Lisa Humphrey, Jill Ann Jarrell, Rachel Thienprayoon, Sarah Friebert; 5/26Pediatric palliative and/or hospice care is provided across a broad spectrum of settings, ranging from inpatient to outpatient to a child's home. Pediatric home-based hospice and/or palliative care teams offer a specialized, interdisciplinary approach to care, allowing children to stay in the home while offering comprehensive support. Common themes emerged [in this review] including studies analyzing models of care, characterizing the population, end-of-life decision making, clinical outcomes of home-based hospice and/or palliative care, costs and economic impact, family experiences, quality domains, specific treatment modalities, and the use of telehealth. Overall, the available literature supported home-based hospice and/or palliative care as an effective model of care, reducing the burden on families, improving quality of life, and allowing families to stay in their preferred setting for care without sacrificing clinical outcomes.

“Nobody told us”: Inequities in end-of-life dementia careJournal of Pain & Symptom Management; by Krista L. Harrison, Lingsheng Li, Jasmine Santoyo-Olsson, Niousha Moini, Lauren J. Hunt, Rebecca L. Sudore, Alex Smith; 6/26In the United States, one in three older adults dies with or from dementia. Despite increasing hospice enrollment, minoritized racial, ethnic, and LGBTQ communities face persistent inequities in access to timely, high-quality end-of-life care. We recruited bereaved caregivers of decedents with dementia from communities that experience health disparities. Just over half of the participants rated end-of-life care middling-to-bad. Reasons cited for receiving poorer care than others were age (40%), race, ethnicity, or nationality (36%), disability (20%), and weight (8%). End-of-life communication challenges reported by participants were often based in systemic racism and structural oppression, including: problems accessing language-concordant education and clinicians, missed opportunities for anticipatory guidance due to cultural biases or lack of access to healthcare, difficulty finding clinicians skilled in sensitive and tailored communication, inconsistent hospice admission criteria, and understaffed hospices.

Somerset hospice opening delayed by Medicare move The Tribune-Democrat, Somerset, PA; by Kelly Urban; 6/20/26 Following a ribbon-cutting in May for the reopening of the Somerset inpatient hospice facility, Windber Hospice at Chan Soon-Shiong Medical Center at Windber has provided an update regarding the facility’s opening timeline. While the facility remains on track to reopen, the opening has been delayed by a recently announced nationwide Medicare enrollment moratorium affecting new hospice enrollments and hospice locations. ... “We know many families have been eagerly anticipating the return of inpatient hospice care in Somerset County, and we share their disappointment in this unexpected delay,” said Richard Sukenik, CEO of Chan Soon-Shiong Medical Center at Windber. “We are actively working with local, state and federal legislators to seek assistance and ensure they understand the importance of bringing this service back to Somerset County. We will continue pursuing every available avenue to move this project forward while preparing to welcome patients as soon as approval is granted.” [Access to the full article may be limited by a paywall.]

Cracks in the AI crystal ball: why clinical prediction tools fall short in the real world Journal of General Internal Medicine; by David Gamble MD, Andrew Wong MD, MS and Amiran Baduashvili, MD; 6/22/26 ... In this issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine, Patel and colleagues evaluate the real-world performance of five Epic predictive AI tools: the Deterioration Index, Sepsis Model, Unplanned Readmission Model, End-of-Life Care Index, and Patient No-Show Model. Their systematic review and meta-analysis, encompassing 22 studies and over two million patients, focused on the models’ ability to distinguish between patients who ultimately did and did not experience a specific outcome—a property known as discrimination.

Groundbreaking ceremony held for Julia HouseWJET Erie, Erie, PA; by Bailey Mutschler; 6/18/26 What started as moving dirt on Thursday [6/18] is expected to become a place focused on comfort, dignity and support for families that need it. Project leaders broke ground off of West Road in McKean, officially beginning construction of Julia House, Erie County's first free standing in-patient hospice facility and outpatient palliative medicine clinic. "I saw the very first inpatient hospice facility in Cleveland, and I realized that we didn't have a facility like this here in Erie County," said Christopher Strzalka, the medical director and board president of Julia Hospice & Palliative Care. ... This project has been in the works since the pandemic. After receiving multiple state grants and holding a number of fundraisers, their goal of nearly $6 million has been reached.

BeLoved Hospice launches new Las Vegas operation Hospice News; by Jim Parker; 6/16/26 Oregon-headquartered BeLoved Hospice has opened a Las Vegas location even as other local operators shut down due to regulatory scrutiny.BeLoved’s Las Vegas operation opened May 1, just two weeks before the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) implemented a six-month moratorium on new hospice enrollments in Medicare. The establishment of the de novo also occurred prior to a Nevada state moratorium on new hospice licenses. Demographic tailwinds are fueling a robust hospice market in Las Vegas, according to Dr. Steven Lampinen, medical director for BeLoved Hospice. 

Vance’s fraud task force is sweeping up legitimate small businesses The Washington Post, Washington, DC; by Isaac Arnsdorf; 6/15/26 The vice president and other officials have downplayed evidence of collateral damage in their crackdown on fraudulent hospices. In April, when the Trump administration began suspending about 800 hospices in the Los Angeles area suspected of fraud, a small local agency started accepting patients from the affected providers. The owner never thought he would be next. ... “The Trump administration is taking a pretty aggressive tactic here, but the downside is you’re often going to catch up legitimate actors because you’re not really taking the time to do your due diligence,” said Hillary Loeffler, vice president of policy and regulatory affairs for the National Alliance for Care at Home, an industry group, who worked on hospice issues at CMS until 2025.

The Foundation of Community Hospice & Palliative Care celebrates grand Opening of the Dorion Family Pediatric Center PR Newswire, Jacksonville, FL; by The Foundation of Community Hospice & Palliative Care; 6/12/26The Foundation of Community Hospice & Palliative Care celebrated the grand opening and ribbon cutting of the Dorion Family Pediatric Center on Thursday, June 11, marking a significant milestone in expanding care for children with serious and complex illnesses in Northeast Florida. More than 300 community leaders, donors, families, and supporters gathered at the Earl B. Hadlow Campus to commemorate the opening of the new center, which is the first-of-its-kind pediatric hospice and palliative care center in Florida and one of only a few in the United States.

Chapters Health System awarded $150,000 grant from the Golisano Foundation to expand inclusive pediatric hospice care in Southwest Florida PR Newswire, Temple Terrace, FL; by Chapters Health System; 6/9/26 Chapters Health System, the nation's leading chronic illness innovator and largest nonprofit hospice provider, has received a $150,000 grant from the B. Thomas Golisano Foundation through the Chapters Health Foundation ... The grant will support the launch of "Advancing Inclusive Pediatric Hospice Care," an initiative designed to expand access to developmentally appropriate, family-centered end-of-life care, particularly for children with intellectual and developmental disabilities through the integration of a Certified Child Life Specialist and Hospital-Hospice Liaison at Hope Healthcare, a Chapters Health affiliate in Fort Myers.