Literature Review

Western Mass nursing home operator ordered to pay $2.1M Athol Daily News, Athol, MA; by Domenic Poli; 7/29/26 The co-founder of the limited liability company that owns two western Massachusetts nursing homes will be forced to compensate lenders $2.1 million after being found liable for fraud, breach of contract and violations of consumer protection law. A Middlesex County Superior Court jury determined after an eight-day trial that Joseph Cuzzupoli, who co-founded Blupoint Healthcare, persuaded Bradley Balter and his business, Arrakis Holdings LLC, to extend loans based on numerous fraudulent misrepresentations. ... Balter and Arrakis Holdings LLC sued Cuzzupoli, seeking declaratory relief and damages for breach of contract, unjust enrichment, fraud and consumer protection law violations in connection with unpaid loans extended to certain nursing homes and a hospice business that Cuzzupoli controlled.

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.

Physicians: proposed California rule threatens livelihood, providersHospice News; by Jim Parker; 7/28/26Some hospice medical directors contend that proposed emergency regulations in California represent a threat to their livelihood, as well as creating access risks for patients. The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) proposed the rules in June in an effort to combat fraud. Within the 143-page document, the sticking point for physicians is a requirement that, if finalized, would limit hospice medical directors to serving only one hospice. CDPH recently held an online stakeholder meeting regarding the proposal in which several physicians called on the agency to allow medical directors to serve as many as three hospices, or to eliminate the limitation altogether for at least some doctors.

Public Policy Agenda & Toolkit National Coalition for Hospice and Palliative Care; Press Release; 5/4/26 The National Coalition for Hospice and Palliative Care’s Public Policy Agenda outlines a unified, consensus-driven set of priorities to strengthen palliative care and hospice for patients, families, and caregivers across the lifespan. Developed through collaboration among national member organizations, the agenda provides a coordinated framework to guide policy and advocacy efforts at both the national and state levels. It reflects shared priorities to improve access, advance quality and equity, support the workforce, and promote sustainable, value-based care.

NPHI urges CMS and state Medicaid agencies to exempt hospice and palliative care patients from Medicaid community engagement requirements National Partnership for Healthcare and Hospice Innovation (NPHI), Washington, DC; Press Release; 7/23/26 The National Partnership for Healthcare and Hospice Innovation (NPHI) has submitted to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and shared with state Medicaid directors a comment letter urging policymakers and regulators to ensure that individuals receiving hospice and palliative care services are explicitly exempt from Medicaid community engagement requirements during implementation of CMS’s Interim Final Rule (CMS-2454-IFC). The Interim Final Rule (CMS-2454-IFC), issued by CMS on June 1, would implement the statutory Medicaid community engagement requirements established by Congress for certain Medicaid expansion beneficiaries while supporting CMS’s objective of ensuring individuals who are medically unable to meet those requirements retain access to health coverage.

In Memoriam: June L. Dahl, PhDJournal of Palliative Medicine; by David E. Weissman, MD; 7/17/26The roots to improve care for the seriously ill in the United States include the passage of the Medicare Hospice Benefit in 1982, the pioneering work of Balfour Mount, Derek Doyle, Josefina Magno, and the work of the Academy of Hospice Physicians. A lessor-known but significant contributor to early palliative care development was the Cancer Pain Initiative movement, founded and led by June Dahl, PhD, who passed away in June 2026 at age 95.

HHS pausing $1 billion in Medicaid payments to California, Minnesota over fraud LI; by Mary Chastain; 7/21/26 The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have paused more than $1 billion in Medicaid payments to California and Minnesota due to fraud concerns. “That includes more than $887 million for California and over $200 million for Minnesota,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said at a press conference. “If those states want that money, they need to provide documentation that these payments are legitimate.”

H.R.9703 - Improving access to transfusion care for hospice patients act of 2026 U.S. Congress.gov, House Ways and Means Committee; sponsored by Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI-6); bill introduced 7/15/26 H.R. 9703: To require the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to test allowing blood transfusions to be paid separately from the Medicare hospice all-inclusive per diem payment.

MedPAC releases 2026 Medicare Data Book MedPAC - Advising the Congress on Medicare Issues; 7/16/26 The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) released its 2026 data book on health care spending and the Medicare program. The publication provides data on Medicare spending, demographics of the Medicare population, beneficiaries' access to care, and quality of care in the program, among other information. You may go to the data book page on our website (www.medpac.gov) to view the data book and Excel data files.

Nurse practitioner: my patient qualified for hospice. I couldn’t get her there The Examiner News; by Diane Pagan; 7/15/26 ... I’ve been Marie’s primary care nurse practitioner for seventeen months. She was referred to me at the time by her PCP because she could no longer physically manage going into the office. She suffered from dementia and her gait was worsening ... Marie’s daughter chose a hospice agency close to her home. The agency reviewed my referral and notes and accepted Marie into their program. The next step was to send them a Certificate of Terminal Illness (CTI) stating that Marie had a terminal illness with an anticipated life expectancy of 6 months or less. Then the obstacle arose. I couldn’t sign the form. ... The inability of nurse practitioners to sign a CTI does not stem from their lack of education or clinical expertise in determining when a patient is nearing end of life. The restriction is rooted in federal Medicare law, written more than 40 years ago, when the role of nurse practitioners was very different than it is today.

Hospice compliance in the data driven era | a leadership advisory on enforcement risk and governance readiness JD Supra; by Ankura; 7/9/26 Hospice enforcement has entered a structurally different phase. Oversight is no longer episodic or complaint‑driven; it is continuous, data‑driven, and predictive. Federal agencies increasingly identify risk through utilization analytics — length of stay, live discharges, diagnosis mix, and level‑of‑care patterns — before auditors ever review records. By the time a hospice receives an audit or payment action, the organization has often already been characterized as an outlier. ... From a leadership perspective, the most consequential insight is how eligibility is evaluated. Regulators assess hospice eligibility longitudinally, across the entire patient stay — not at isolated certification points. ...

Why joint ventures may outpace M&A during the CMS home health enrollment moratorium Home Health Care News; by MK Manoylov; 7/14/26 The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) six-month moratorium on new Medicare home health enrollments limits one pathway for providers to scale, but operators can still expand organically and through M&A. Growth-minded operators can increase census, improve workforce availability, acquire other businesses and forge joint ventures, home health industry insiders said during a recent Home Health Care News webinar. Organic growth can mean improving conversion rates from referrals, expanding partnerships and developing operations, said Andwell Health Partners CEO Ken Albert.