Literature Review

This global healthcare lesson could change America | part one Teleios Collaborative Network (TCN); podcast hosted by Chris Comeaux with Dr. Mark Stoltenberg; 7/22/26 Some of the most innovative solutions to America's healthcare challenges aren't being developed in the world's wealthiest hospitals—they're emerging from communities with the fewest resources. What can American healthcare learn from global healthcare?  In our latest episode, Dr. Mark Stoltenberg, Harvard Medical School professor and Massachusetts General Hospital physician, joins Chris Comeaux to explore global healthcare, palliative care, hospice leadership, healthcare innovation, and the future of serious illness care in America. ... Drawing from his work leading global palliative care programs throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, and other underserved regions, he shares how resource-limited healthcare systems are pioneering solutions that can improve American healthcare, strengthen the healthcare workforce, and restore compassionate, person-centered care.

Mercy Hospice House renamed Garden B; some criticize lack of transparency The Durango Herald, Durango, CO; by Jessica Bowman; 7/20/26 Mercy Hospice House was renamed Garden B after the for-profit arm of CommonSpirit Health Network, Health at Home, assumed responsibility for outpatient hospice services. The name change was required by state regulations, according to Wendy Hockett, the Health at Home representative who spoke with local hospice volunteers during a meeting Wednesday at the hospice offices in Three Springs. Because Mercy Hospital no longer holds Colorado's hospice license, the building can no longer legally be called a "hospice house," she said. The hospice license is now held by CommonSpirit Health at Home. The hospice team will continues to care for patients who are in one of the eight Garden B beds, but Mercy Hospital nurses, trained in both hospice and non-hospice care, will also provide bedside care, she said.

The impact of environment on palliative care practices and needs Europe Says | Environment; 7/19/26 Climate change is now recognised as one of the greatest public health threats globally. Rising temperatures, extreme weather events, floods, droughts, air pollution affect people living with chronic, serious, and life-limiting illnesses. Patients requiring palliative care are among the most vulnerable during environmental crises. Many depend on:

New easy-to-navigate web edition: A history of care - 250 years of American need, service and hope Composing Life Out of Loss, partnered with Hospice & Palliative Care Today; by Joy S. Berger; 7/20/26 Growing out of your overwhelming response to our July 4th, 2026 commemoration, we’re now releasing a new web edition of A History of Care: 250 Years of American Need, Service and Hope to carry this work forward. We invite you to use this living history—in your own setting and across our field—as we write the next chapters of care together.

Calendar Year (CY) 2027 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Proposed Rule CMS Newsroom; Fact Sheet; 7/14/26 paired with U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, CMS CY 2027 Payment Policies under the Physician Fee Schedule, 7/16/26; summary by guest editor Judi Lund Person On July 14, 2026, the Federal Register posted the CY 2027 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule proposed rule – CMS-1848-P. The CMS Fact Sheet on the proposed rule can be found here. While the proposed rule is 1,592 pages, there are two items of note to hospice and palliative care readers: 1) Supporting Beneficiaries Planning for Future Medical Decisions.CMS is proposing to create two new HCPCS codes to describe advance care planning (ACP) services furnished by clinical staff under the direct supervision of the billing physician or other practitioner. These new codes will more accurately distinguish and value the work done by billing practitioners from time spent by their clinical staff providing ACP services. We are further proposing that the existing ACP CPT codes 99497 and 99498 would only be used to report time personally spent by the billing practitioner. 2) RFI on Community-based Palliative Care, asking questions on eligibility for serious illness care and palliative care, the future of care management services and advanced primary care management.   

When the expert becomes the daughter: lessons from my father's hospice journey Provider Insights; by Annette Lee; 7/10/26 Part 4: Leadership Lessons are often Learned at the Bedside The most meaningful leadership lessons are often learned at the bedside. During my father's sixteen-day hospice journey, I experienced hospice not as a consultant, but as a daughter. These takeaways highlight the leadership decisions, clinical practices, and compassionate moments that transformed exceptional hospice care into an unforgettable experience for our entire family. My hope is that they inspire hospice leaders to continually ask not only, "Are we providing excellent care?" but also, "How will this family remember us?"Editor's Note: Click here for an excellent table, "Hospice Leadership Lessons Learned on the Other Side," with columns for "What Our Family Experienced," "Leadership Lesson," "Action for Your Hospice." It fleshes out 16 concise, practical first-hand lessons, such as "A trusted first conversation"; "Compassion over pressure"; "Information given in manageable pieces" and more.

Civility requires the willingness to engage – a dispute with a neighbor revealed how much motivation matters The Conversation; by Deborah Mower, Center for Practical Ethics; 7/2/26 ... Civility research matters for ethics education across every discipline, especially fields such as law or medicine where contentious political and moral disagreements are likely to arise. Consider, for instance, the tense conversations between healthcare professionals who disagree about whether the best course of treatment for a patient is to turn to hospice services. Civility has a role to play in the workplace, too, where people need to navigate disagreements with colleagues and also between potentially conflicting professional and legal obligations, client expectations and ethical beliefs. ... Civility isn’t the absence of disagreement, heated disagreement or even outright anger, but continued engagement in the face of and despite such emotion.

An end-of-life care approach defining a new standard of careJAMDA; by David N. Hoffman; 6/26The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Leadership Alliance established an End-of-Life Care/Ending-Life Care Accelerator to define a continuum of care for patients as they progress from curative care, to palliative care, to hospice care, to final care planning, including ending life care interventions such as Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD), Voluntarily stopping eating and drinking (VSED), and palliative sedation. This accelerator defined as its goal the task of breaking down barriers between care providers which has been illuminated by research recently conducted by the Completed Life Initiative (CLI). CLI’s research efforts in this area started with an ongoing examination of nationwide hospice organization policies to provide referral for active intervention at the end of life. That effort was refocused on the widespread noncompliance of California and Washington state hospice organizations with a state law requirement to post on the organizations website a list of interventions made available by the hospice organization.

Hospitals confront nursing opposition to AI HFMA; by Rich Daly; 7/7/26 Health systems’ adoption of artificial intelligence to improve productivity increasingly is meeting opposition from their nursing staff. Nurse opposition to AI has become most visible in nurse strikes, where limits and guardrails on AI deployment for clinical and administrative uses have emerged. Sixty-five percent of hospitals reported using AI or predictive models integrated with their electronic health records (EHRs) in 2023, according to a recent study. But nurse distrust of the technology was seen in a 2024 National Nurses United survey of 2,300 registered nurses, which found that 60% of respondents did not trust their employers to prioritize patient safety when implementing AI.

How to build trust in a new team and establish psychological safety - fast TylerHayden.com; by Tyler Hayden; 7/6/26 Psychological safety is one of the most talked-about concepts in modern leadership — and one of the least understood in practice. Most leaders know they’re supposed to create it. Far fewer know what it actually looks like when it’s missing, what it feels like when it’s present, or how to build it deliberately and quickly when the clock is ticking and the stakes are real. This post is for those leaders. The ones stepping into a new team, a skeptical room, or a group that’s been burned before — and who need more than theory. ...

Errors in billing in the United States may result in severe civil or even criminal penalties Spilman Thomas & Battle; by Christopher R. Arthur, William S. Thompson; 7/1/26 The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has ratcheted up its efforts to pursue actions against corporations, healthcare entities, and individuals, including physicians, for false Medicare or Medicaid billing and COVID-19-related loans. ... As part of this announcement, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) suspended 1,079 providers and revoked billing privileges for 1,403 providers. ... In addition to allowing the United States to pursue perpetrators of fraud on its own, the FCA allows private citizens to file suits on behalf of the government (called “qui tam” suits) against those who have defrauded the government. In the healthcare realm, these suits are often filed by disgruntled employees and patients, but can also be brought by competitors. ...

CMS creates new health tech office to lead interoperability efforts, digital products Fierce Healthcare; by Heather Landi; 6/15/26 The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) aims to play a bigger role in health tech modernization efforts, including leading interoperability initiatives. The agency created a new Office of Health Technology and Products (OHTP) to provide "enterprise leadership and oversight for CMS healthcare technology modernization, digital products and transformation of platforms and services supporting Medicare, Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and other CMS-administered programs," according to a notice in the Federal Register published on June 11. The new health tech-focused office will work in close coordination with the CMS Chief Information Officer (CIO) and will lead enterprise strategy for artificial intelligence, interoperability, digital product development, Medicare.gov, provider directories and claims system modernization, according to the notice. The office consists of eight divisions and the notice lists more than 90 responsibilities.Editor's Note: Examine the detailed Federal Register's "Statement of Organization, Functions, and Delegations of Authority"