Literature Review

CMS hospice payment suspensions slamming vendors Hospice News; by Jim Parker; 8/21/26 ... CMS earlier this year began suspending Medicare payments to hundreds of hospices allegedly due to suspected fraud. ... Evidence indicates that some legitimate hospices were caught up in the dragnet due to patients being discharged for valid reasons, such as a revocation of the benefit, moving out of a provider’s service area or transfer to another hospice. ... These regulatory actions have had a ripple effect on vendors, according to a DME company CEO that spoke to Hospice News on background. “These hospice agencies are being suspended. They’re not getting paid,” the DME CEO told Hospice News. “If they’re not getting paid, their employees are not getting paid. DME providers like us are not getting paid. Pharmacies are not getting paid. Any other contractor they have is not getting paid.” This has placed some vendor businesses in peril, and some of them have been considering layoffs of their own, another DME provider ... told Hospice News, “We’ve been trying to keep everybody on board, keep them employed, keep them paid for as long as we possibly can.”

When a hospice patient comes to the hospitalICD10monitor; by Tiffany Ferguson, LMSW, CMAC, ACM; 8/17/26 A recent question was posed related to “What happens when a hospice enrolled patient returns to the hospital for emergency or hospital care?” Aside from the initial questions such as “did we even know this patient was on hospice when they roll through the emergency room, or why did they come back to the hospital? The next question may evolve to the following: is the treatment still involving care congruent with the patient’s hospice care plan or has the patient/representative elected to revoke their hospice services? Understanding these distinctions is increasingly important for case management, utilization review, registration, revenue cycle, and especially hospital clinical teams.

How SNF upper payment limits can hurt hospices Hospice News; by Brandyn Simmons; 8/17/2 When it comes to healthcare — especially if it involves Medicare or Medicaid — one solution can lead to new problems. The Upper Payment Limit (UPL) program is no exception to this rule. Across the spectrum in healthcare, Medicaid reimbursements have typically been inadequate in covering all expenses for patient care. This is where the UPL comes in. Under this initiative, providers such as skilled nursing facilities (SNF) can receive a gap payment through Medicare to make up the difference. While this is a boon for SNFs, this can become a major headache for many hospice companies across the United States. ...

Home health aide pay 2026: $17.36/hr average, top states & policy threat to your paycheck Unfinished Man; by Rasha; 8/11/26 The average home health aide makes $36,120 a year, or $17.36 an hour — but pay varies widely by state, setting, and a proposed federal rule change. You search “home health aide salary” and get three different numbers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says one thing, Payscale says another, and the Labor Department median sits somewhere in between. Which one do you trust? ... Some aides earn barely above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. Others clear $20 an hour. And right now, there’s a policy fight happening that could change everything about how this job pays.

MatrixCare releases list of 2026 CAHPS Honors Elite and Honors Award winners MatrixCare, by ResMed; retrieved from the MatrixCare website on 8/11/26 MatrixCare (a ResMed company) released its 2026 CAHPS Honors and Honors Elite Award winners, recognizing home health and hospice organizations whose patient/family satisfaction scores exceeded MatrixCare's own national benchmark — a distinction limited to agencies that use MatrixCare as their CAHPS survey vendor. This is not a ranking among all roughly 6,850 Medicare-certified hospices nationwide, so many excellent agencies using other vendors simply aren't eligible to appear. Congratulations to all organizations listed, especially the approximately 70 that reached the top "Honors Elite" tier.

From ethics to trust: strategic guardrails for safe, secure, effective AI in healthcareMedCity News; by Luk Arbuckle; 8/3/26Ethical AI and trustworthy AI frameworks should be table stakes for healthcare and life sciences organizations seeking to innovate with AI. There’s more attention, more skepticism and more pressure to get AI right, especially knowing these applications can impact patient lives. As AI becomes more integrated into drug development and clinical workflows, leaders across healthcare and life sciences are therefore expected to demonstrate ethical stewardship and technical competence to instill trust and protect patients. That’s why ethical AI and trustworthy AI frameworks should be table stakes for healthcare and life sciences organizations seeking to innovate with AI. ... Together, they allow teams to answer two critical, pressure-tested questions: what risks are associated with this AI application, and are we capable of mitigating them?

Why traditional primary care fails frail elders and the future need for specialized models | part one Teleios Collaborative Network (TCN); podcast hosted by Chris Comeaux with Dr. Bethany Snider; 7/29/26 Traditional primary care wasn't designed for today's frail elders—and that gap may be one of healthcare's greatest challenges. As America's population ages, healthcare leaders face an urgent question: Is the traditional primary care model enough to care for frail older adults with complex medical, functional, and social needs?  In Part One of this thought-provoking conversation, Chris Comeaux welcomes Dr. Bethany Snider, Chief Medical Officer of Everent Health, to explore why the future of serious illness care requires a fundamentally different approach. Together, they unpack the emerging concept of the frail elder practice—a longitudinal, interdisciplinary model that extends beyond office visits to meet patients where they are, both physically and emotionally.

Las Vegas Hospice booted from Medicare over ties to sanctioned provider Hoodline; by Christopher Kim; 7/29/26 OneCare Hospice, LLC has been kicked out of Medicare after a federal administrative law judge upheld a government move to cut off the Las Vegas company, not because its own claims were found fraudulent, but because of its legal ties to another Nevada hospice that had already lost its billing privileges. On top of the revocation, OneCare is staring at a 10-year Medicare reenrollment bar and a spot on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Medicare preclusion list. The decision, issued July 9 after OneCare appealed the earlier agency action, found that federal officials were within their rights to pull OneCare’s enrollment.

6th Cir. vacates district court ruling against Medicare hospice Bloomberg Law; by Ganny Belloni; 7/26/26 

What Cleveland can teach us about aging with dignity: Robert Phillips-Plona Cleveland.com, Cleveland, OH; by guest columnist Robert Phillips-Plona, director of facilities for Reserve Care; 7/26/26 During my career, I have had the privilege of working in -- as well as participating in creating --hospice care environments in Northeast Ohio. ... These spaces evolved over time as the needs of patients, families and staff changed. Each space and project looked different. The integration of technology that supported, but did not distract from, the human experience of patients, their loved ones and caregivers offered new challenges. Community needs changed. But one thing remained constant: People deserve dignity, comfort and compassion during life's most difficult moments. As Cleveland's population continues to age, conversations around health care often focus on hospital capacity, staffing shortages and rising medical costs. Those challenges matter, but we also need to ask a different question: How do we create environments where people can age and die with dignity?

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.

Nevada hospice industry under scrutiny as families navigate quality care gaps KTNV-13 ABC, Las Vegas, NV; by Abel Garcia; 7/21/26 ... As I've continued to look into hospice care and concerns in Southern Nevada, one issue kept coming up: How do you navigate those decisions? To get a better idea, I spoke to a local family about their experience with hospice care: Mikiya Davis found herself navigating hospice care for the first time when her mother, Deborah Johnson, suffered a stroke, and Davis moved her from California to Las Vegas to care for her, herself. Davis says she eventually realized how much the quality of care, staffing, and support can vary depending on the provider. "I didn't know my rights. It was my first time on hospice, and If you don't know, you just don't know," she said. Without naming the hospices involved, Davis tells me she saw major differences between the provider she started with and the one she transferred to after just a few weeks. ...

The post-AI era of healthcare: why technology alone won’t transform care Health IT Answers; by Cheryl Cruver; 7/20/26 For the better part of the last three years, healthcare has been fascinated by artificial intelligence (AI). Conferences, board meetings, and strategic plans have all focused on AI’s capacity to reshape everything from clinical documentation to revenue cycle management. At this year’s HFMA Annual Conference, however, something interesting happened. The conversation matured. The discussion was no longer about whether healthcare should adopt AI. ... Instead, healthcare leaders spent much of their time discussing something more practical and arguably more important: how organizations operationalize AI to improve patient experiences, reduce costs, and create sustainable change.