Social Media Watch 9/19/25
09/19/25 at 03:00 AM
- The Advancing the Science of Palliative Care Research across the Lifespan (ASCENT) Consortium now has a website and LinkedIn page.
- Drew Mihalyo, PharmD, notes "per a recent JAMA article that caught my eye in Hospice & Palliative Care Today, in 2023, >41,000 older adults died from falls—more than from car crashes, overdoses, or breast/prostate cancer. The hidden driver? Medications."
- Elizabeth Hogue posted Wound care products: Fraud and abuse. Over the past two years expenditures by Part B of the Medicare Program for skin substitutes provided in non-institutional settings have skyrocketed to more than $10 billion annually up from $389 million in 2022... Vendors of skin care substitutes also targeted hospice patients. A couple pled guilty for causing submission of over $1.2 billion of false claims for unnecessary skin substitute products. Among other things, they instructed and incentivized sales representatives financially to order grafts larger than the size of the wounds in order to maximize reimbursement. [The OIG report referenced is: Medicare Part B Payment Trends for Skin Substitutes Raise Major Concerns About Fraud, Waste, and Abuse.]
- Joseph Killian announced he's retiring 10/1/25 as President and CEO at Hospice of St. Francis, Titusville, FL. Thanks for your many years of service in hospice!