Literature Review

The future of hospice: how HOPE will transform reimbursement & care | part one Teleios Collaborative Network (TCN); podcast hosted by Chris Comeaux with Andrea Hale and Raianne Melton; 5/20/26 In this Part One episode of The Future of Hospice: How HOPE Will Transform Reimbursement & Care, healthcare leaders and hospice professionals, Andrea Hale, CEO of Valley Hospice and Raianne Melton, Director of Clinical Services of Professional Services for Axxess, explore how CMS hospice changes will impact hospice operations, compliance, documentation, and outcomes-based reimbursement models. We take a deep dive into one of the most significant changes facing hospice providers in decades—the implementation of the Hospice Outcomes & Patient Evaluation (HOPE) tool.  

SOS Hospice: Let’s ask ChatGPT to select a hospice programSubstack post; by Joan Teno; 5/11/26In this essay, I asked ChatGPT to identify the “best” hospice in Rhode Island and then examines the logic and data sources behind the answer. The analysis highlights how AI rankings can rely on non-validated or imputed measures and may overlook important Medicare Care Compare context. Comparing ChatGPT’s top picks with the author’s own assessment illustrates how different metrics can point to very different conclusions. Bottom line: AI can be a useful starting point for questions about quality, but patients and families should treat hospice rankings with caution and verify claims using transparent, validated measures.

Healthcare leaders break down hospice reform, Medicare & quality care | part one Teleios Collaborative Network (TCN); podcast hosted by Chris Comeaux with Tom Koutsoumpas and Carole Fisher; 5/6/26 In Part One of Healthcare Leaders Break Down Hospice Reform, Medicare & Quality Care, Chris Comeaux sits down with nationally respected healthcare leaders Tom Koutsoumpas, Founder & CEO of NPHI and Carole Fisher, President of NPHI to explore the evolving future of hospice, palliative care, Medicare oversight, and the growing demand for quality-driven, compassionate healthcare leadership. Together, they unpack the growing challenges facing end-of-life care — from fraud and benefit manipulation to the urgent need for quality transparency and authentic patient-centered care.

2026 Fashion Fling raises funds for Hospice Brazos Valley [and speech about fraud] The Fayette County Record, La Grange, TX; by News Staff; 4/20/26 Hospice Brazos Valley presented “Fashion Fling 2026” at a new location this year – the KC Hall in La Grange – on Saturday, April 18. About 275 ladies (along with a few gentlemen) attended the event. ... During the event, Hospice Brazos Valley CEO Lisa Mc-Nair delivered a speech: ... "“I had the opportunity last week to testify in front of the Texas Senate Health and Human Services Committee, charged with protecting taxpayer funds by preventing fraud and abuse. ... There are 1,366 hospices currently operating in Texas, which is a 98.5% increase since Jan 1, 2020. These new hospices are not rolling into to town to provide excellent hospice care; they are opening up to find ways to fraudulently bill Medicare for services. ... I am proud to tell you that ... we are one of only 24 hospices in the entire state of Texas out of the 1,366 licensed hospices, with a 5-star rating. We are in the top 1.7% of all Texas Hospices and in the top 2% in the entire nation."

Expert panel updating NCHPC’s Palliative Care Clinical Practice Guidelines Hospice News; by Kevin Ryan; 4/1/26 The National Coalition for Hospice and Palliative Care (NCHPC) has chosen a panel of 33 palliative care experts to develop the 5th edition of the Clinical Practice Guidelines for Quality Palliative Care. Originally created in 2004, through the National Consensus Project, the guidelines established the first national, evidence-based standards for the palliative care field. The guidelines have been updated four times since 2004 and have been endorsed by more than 90 health and professional health care worker organizations.  

Characteristics of United States Food and Drug Administration drug recalls involving opioid medications, 2002-2025Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety; by Julio C Nunes, Gabriel P A Costa, Joao P De Aquino; 3/26We reviewed more than 20 years of recall data from the United States Food and Drug Administration and found 286 recalls involving seven commonly used opioids, affecting over 350 million tablets, capsules, patches, and injectable products. Nearly half of these recalls occurred because products failed basic quality checks, while others involved incorrect doses, contamination, mislabeling, or defective delivery systems. The most serious recalls, those carrying risk of serious injury or death, were concentrated among fentanyl, morphine, and hydromorphone. Many recall notices lacked important details, including the number of units affected, making it difficult to understand how these issues may impact patients. Our findings show that opioid recalls happen regularly and often reflect manufacturing problems that could influence treatment safety or effectiveness.

Keys to reinvigorating hospice quality Hospice News; by Holly Vossel; 3/24/26 Health care disparities across a swelling aging population are driving a need for evolutionary change in hospice quality standards. ... Staffing shortages are playing a more significant role in the push for regulation changes, Hospice Analytics CEO Cordt Kassner said. Keeping pace with rising demand and fewer staffing resources has hospices seeking creative avenues, Kassner indicated. Leveraging technology has helped some hospices to improve clinical capacity and staffing ratios. However, more regulatory change that supports expanded hospice and palliative care education and greater transparency around staffing could go a long way in quality improvement, he said. “We can create these staffing ratios, but if they aren’t publicly reported and available how helpful are they?” Kassner said in the assembly. “It makes sense that we would want the experts, the people with the most experience in this field, to be helping to craft the regulations. ..."Editor's Note: Cordt Kassner, PhD, is also the owner and publisher for Hospice & Palliative Care Today.

The limits of efficiency in home health’s cost-cutting era Home Health Care News; by Morgan Gonzales; 3/24/26With reimbursement pressures, rising inflation and rampant workforce shortages, efficiency has become a top priority for many home-based care providers. But efficiency initiatives carry certain risks if not executed with precision. The home-based care industry must retain a long-range view when looking to improve efficiency, according to Zac Long, CEO of Well Care Health, a family-owned and operated home health and hospice provider. ... “What AI does is just basically pour gasoline on an existing process,” Long said. “So if that process isn’t 100% buttoned up and compliant, it can create a lot of risk when you pour gas on it. ..."

Antibiotics in hospice: Applying the four-quadrant approach to improve patient-centered care Oxford Academic | Clinical Infectious Diseases; by Patrick D. Crowley, Karen M. Meagher, Amelia K. Barwise; 3/5/26The use of antibiotics in the hospice setting is complicated by differing patient goals, elevated side effects, and limited information regarding effectiveness. Here, we describe a case and apply the four-quadrant approach (4QA). This includes analyzing the case through the lenses of (1) medical indications related to improving function and reducing symptoms; (2) patient preferences ...; (3) quality-of-life factors that include managing infectious symptoms versus antibiotic side effects; and (4) contextual features, which include antimicrobial resistance concerns and cost considerations. Antibiotics may be beneficial in some cases and should not be denied to patients enrolled in hospice care. More robust evidence-based information about outcomes is needed to inform discussions at the time of enrollment. Applying the 4QA to a case can help determine the best approach for each individual patient.

2025 Facts and Figures Report now available to Alliance members The National Alliance for Care at Home; Alexandria, VA and Washington, DC; Press Release; 3/3/26 The National Alliance for Care at Home (the Alliance) published the 2025 edition of Facts and Figures, an annual report on key data points related to the delivery of hospice care, including information on patient characteristics, location and level of care, Medicare hospice spending, hospice provider characteristics, and quality of care. Facts and Figures – the leading resource for hospice providers and others interested in understanding the work of the community – has been published annually for over two decades. The findings in this report reflect patients who received care in 2024, provided by hospices certified by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and reimbursed under the Medicare Hospice Benefit. ... The full 2025 Facts and Figures report is available for Alliance members online. The Executive Summary is available to the public.  Editor's Note: Pair this national data with the The Alliance and the Research Institute for Home Care release 2025 Hospice Chartbook that we posted on 2/20/26. The RIHC Hospice Chartbook mainly provides state views with some national treands, whereas this Facts and Figures report is mainly a national view with time trends.

The measure isn’t wrong. The story is incomplete. McKnights Long-Term Care News; by Steven Littlehale; 2/27/26 Not long ago, I was sitting across from a nursing home leadership team as they stared at a quality measure report that didn’t make sense to them. ... So we did what more facilities should do when a QM score feels off: We stopped looking at the rating and started looking at the math. That’s where the real story surfaced. It wasn’t about poor care, but about exclusions not captured, covariates not fully coded, and pieces of the clinical picture that never made it into the structured data fields the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reads. 

Hospice spending, care quality scores by state Becker's Hospital Review; by Elizabeth Gregerson; 2/18/26 California and Nevada hospice providers had the lowest care-quality scores despite spending the most per beneficiary to provide care between Jan. 1, 2023, and Dec. 31, 2024, according to CMS data released Feb. 18. Rhode Island and West Virginia had the highest hospice care quality scores during the data collection period. CMS’ Hospice Quality Reporting Program includes data submitted directly by hospice providers, from Medicare hospice claims, and from the Hospice Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey. Here are the hospice care quality scores and per-beneficiary spending amounts by state between Jan. 1, 2023, and Dec. 31, 2024, according to CMS: ...

Integrating compassion and policy: Highlights from IAHPC Advocacy, 2025Palliative Medicine in Practice: by Katherine Irene PettusIn 2025, the International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care (IAHPC) advanced advocacy for palliative care as an ethical, clinical, and human rights imperative. As a non-state actor in official relations with the World Health Organization (WHO), the association worked across policy, faith, and professional domains to integrate palliative care into universal health coverage frameworks. This report summarizes IAHPC’s global activities from February to November 2025, including engagement at the 78th World Health Assembly (WHA), collaboration with WHO and the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), the launch of the Leadership and Advocacy Development (LEAD2) program, and new interfaith and educational initiatives.Assistant Editor's note: As I peruse peer reviewed journals to bring you relevant and current summaries of research, I am amazed at the large number of articles published now about palliative care. It wasn't this way just a few years ago. As a long-time hospice and palliative care nurse, I am delighted to see the ground swell of interest in the principles, the need, the value, and the effectiveness of palliative care. I feel like 'We Have Arrived' (finally!). Kudos to all of you who have worked tirelessly over many years to educate professionals and the public at large, about palliative care and its virtues. I know we are not done; there is more to do. But we've come a long way baby!