Literature Review

CMS’s Age-Friendly Hospital Measure: Julia Adler-Milstein, Stephanie Rogers, and Shari LingGeriPal podcast; by Eric Widera, Alex Smith, Julia Adler-Milstein, Stephanie Rogers, Shari Ling; 3/26/26In 2025, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) began requiring hospitals participating in the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting (IQR) program to report on a new “Age-Friendly Hospital Measure.” The hope is that, by attesting to this measure, hospitals will develop evidence-based processes to improve care for older adults in hospital settings. On this week’s podcast, we explore this new measure with Sheri Ling, CMS’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer serving in the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality (CCSQ). We’ve also invited some returning guests from our past Age Friendly Health Systems podcast, Julia Adler-Milstein and Stephanie Rogers, to discuss how they are thinking about this new measure and how we should operationalize it.Publisher's note: If required in hospitals, it may soon be required in hospice... See information about CHAP's Age-Friendly Care -Certified Professional (AFC-CP) Course here.

O’Neill Center Health Fair connects Marietta seniors with medical services, transportation and community resources The Marietta Times, Marietta, GA; by Gwen Sour; 5/5/26 The O’Neill Center hosted its annual Health Fair Monday morning, bringing together dozens of local providers and organizations to connect seniors with health resources, screenings and support services in one place. Rachel Garrison, activity coordinator at the center, said the event is designed to make information and assistance more accessible to older adults across the community. ... [Hospice organizations included] Buckey Hospice, Shrivers Hospice, Cawley Hospice, and Amedisys Hospice.

OHSU grapples with falling rank on patient safety measures OPB, Oregon Health & Science University; by Amelia Templeton; 4/27/26 [The context begins with an "abrupt firing" of the CEO for OHSU Health. The excerpt below is further into the article, with relevance for hospice providers and your partnerships with hospitals.] Mortality — the number of observed patient deaths versus the number expected — was the other major contributing factor to OHSU slipping in Vizient’s ranks. Edwards shared several caveats with the board as to why she believes OHSU is performing better than its ranking indicates, particularly on the mortality score. For example, some patient deaths may have been counted differently by Vizient due to the closure of a hospice program. That could account for up to a third of the change in OHSU’s mortality grade, she said. And an internal review of the mortality data suggested that some OHSU patients’ medical charts weren’t accurately capturing how sick or complex they were.

Who pays for hospice care in a nursing home? U.S. News & World Report; 4/23/26 ... Some people who pursue hospice care through nursing homes do so after a period of skilled nursing care, whereas others move to a nursing home in direct pursuit of hospice. However you time your transition, initiating hospice is a big decision.. To make sure you or your loved one is ready to make the change, consider the differences between how nursing homes provide hospice treatment and skilled nursing care, and how you’ll fund the transition.

ClearPath Healthcare launches in-home primary care service across Central Oregon Cascade Business News (CBN); by CBN; 4/2/26 ClearPath Healthcare, a nonprofit and hospice leader in Central Oregon for more than 40 years, has launched its new In-Home Primary Care service. This program was launched to help Central Oregonians who find it difficult to physically get in to see their primary care doctor. ClearPath Healthcare’s aim is to bring quality, unhurried care right to patients’ doors. This launch is an important step for ClearPath Healthcare, which changed its name from Hospice of Redmond in December 2025. The new name reflects the organization’s expanded services, including a wider range of care, from primary care to end-of-life support.

‘No silver bullet’: The iterative staffing strategies home-based care providers need Home Health Care News; by Morgan Gonzales; 3/26/26 The home-based care staffing landscape is undergoing a shift, as worker demographics, desires and motivations evolve. ... [There] there is no single technique that serves as a panacea, and providers must continually iterate their strategies, according to Kerin Zuger, the chief operating officer at Caretech. “There is no silver bullet,” Zuger said on a recent Home Health Care News webinar. “What do we need to do with our recruiting and onboarding strategy so that we can hire more caregivers and get them to stay? The answer is, everything. The answer is, try it all and then try it again. 

Medicare Advantage ‘working’ for seniors, but not for taxpayers, experts say: Penn LDI panel cites costs for enrollees alongside billions in overpayments and systemic gaming Penn LDI - Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics; by Hoag Levins; 3/23/26 In response to the question “Is Medicare Advantage Working?” posed in a University of Pennsylvania panel discussion, two top experts concurred that the program is “working” in one narrow but powerful sense: It delivers more appealing coverage to many seniors, especially those with modest incomes. But it is not “working” in the sense originally promised by policymakers, because it is not saving public money and has encouraged a range of payment distortions, coding games, marketing excesses, and utilization-management conflicts.

VNA & Hospice of the Southwest Region Vermont celebrates 80 years Bennington Banner, Bennington, VT; by Mark Rondeau; 3/22/26 [Historic photo shows workers with the Rutland Area Visiting Nurse Association and Hospice, a predecessor to VNA & Hospice of the Southwest Region, in the 1970s.] VNA & Hospice of the Southwest Region, founded in 1946, is celebrating 80 years of service to the community and compassionate care. “Our agency is celebrating 80 years of providing home health services in the community this year,” VNAHSR said in a statement. “We started as just a small group of community members that gathered to create an organization that would provide skilled nursing in the home with a mission to promote health and independence.Editor's Note: Timeline shows this VNA's beginnings as a "Certified Home Health Agency" to merging with Rutland Area Hospice in 1996, and more.

The US health spending problem is still about pricesHealth Affairs; by Irene Papanicolas, Jonathan Cylus, Luca Lorenzoni; 2/18/26For more than two decades, debates about why US health care spending is so high have been shaped by the insight articulated by Gerard Anderson, Uwe Reinhardt and Peter Hussey: that the United States does not use more health care than other high-income countries but pays much higher prices for it. The original “It’s the Prices, Stupid” argument was fundamentally about price levels, not price growth. That central insight remains as true today as when it was first articulated: across services, drugs, and inputs, the United States consistently pays substantially higher prices than its peers for comparable services, drugs, and inputs.

Staying in Grand: Experts highlight unique challenges facing older adults in mountain towns Sky-Hi News; by Kyle McCabe and Izzy Wagner; 2/27/26 ... As people age in rural resort communities like those in Grand and Summit counties, they often face situations that require them to leave for short or extended periods of time —  sometimes even permanently. A lack of comprehensive medical services, high costs of living, the effects of high altitude on the body, the inherent risks of an active mountain lifestyle and more add complications for people hoping to age in place in mountain towns. However, individuals determined to remain in their communities have figured out ways to overcome those challenges by learning about, preparing for and engaging with the topic of aging. ... Smiley [person interviewed] pointed to hospice and palliative care, or care for people living with serious illnesses, as gaps in service in the area. “It is not an uncommon gap in a small community or in a mountain community,” Smiley said, “but having hospice and palliative care would really allow people to have, kind of, a higher quality of life during those last, final years.”

3 strategies to improve care access: McKinsey Becker's Hospital Review; by Kristin Kuchno; 3/3/26 With the U.S. physician shortage projected to surpass 137,000 by 2037, improving patient access cannot rely on pushing physicians to see more patients, according to a Feb. 26 McKinsey article. In McKinsey’s 2025 Physician Survey, 83% of physicians said they have seen patients delay care, with access barriers ranking among the top reasons. ... McKinsey outlines three additional strategies that when implemented together and in sequence — alongside efforts to reduce waste — can improve patient satisfaction and retention.

Why Silverado’s new CEO thinks memory care must ‘be bold’ to serve new customers Senior Housing News; by Austin Montgomery; 2/24/26 Memory care providers today must take bold approaches to develop the next generation of new leadership and serve the incoming baby boomer generation. That’s according to Silverado CEO Designate Wayne Sanner. Last year, Sanner joined the California-based memory care provider with plans to take over for longtime CEO Loren Shook, who will transition to a role as the operator’s executive chairman of the board later this year.