[Israel] Hadassah Hospice: bringing meaning to life 
Hadassah.org | Medicine & Research, Jerusalem, Israel; Press Release; 8/26/26 
"Outside, there may be conflicts and wars, but inside these walls is a small microcosm, disconnected from the outer world, that concentrates on humanity." This is how Dr. Daniel Azoulay described the Inna and Jack Kay Hospice at Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus. ... This October, the hospice is marking 40 years since its founding by Dr. Reuven Fink and nurse Ruth Shahal-Gassner. In the quiet place Dr. Azoulay describes, the staff provides end-of-life palliative care to some 220 patients every year. "There's a closeness here among Jews and Muslims, religious and secular people. At the end of life, everyone is the same — everybody asks that their suffering be alleviated and battles the same anxieties and fears," said Dr. Azoulay, who is head of palliative service and responsible for the Hospice Department.
Editor's Note: May we listen and learn. In the midst of our deluge of political wars each way we turn, may we find ways to "concentrate on humanity." Read again: "There's a closeness here among Jews and Muslims, religious and secular people. At the end of life, everyone is the same — everybody asks that their suffering be alleviated and battles the same anxieties and fears."

Avow expands the future of health care in Southwest Florida with property acquisition in Lee County 
PRLOG Press, Naples, FL; by Avow; 8/26/26 
Avow is pleased to announce the acquisition of property at 14590 Hope Center Loop in Hope Preserve, Fort Myers, representing an important step in the organization's continued expansion of services for patients and families throughout Southwest Florida. With a 44-year history of providing compassionate, not-for-profit care, Avow is expanding its presence in Lee County to make high-quality hospice, palliative care, home health, and grief and loss support more accessible to the growing community. The Hope Preserve property will provide a future home for an approximately 40,000-square-foot Avow facility designed first and foremost to serve patients, families, children, and adults throughout the region.

‘More than just a building:’ As Duke sells historic bereavement center, a town grapples with grief 
Duke Chronicle; by Dylan Halper; 8/26/26 
When Maria Peluso’s father died in April 2014, her family directed all donations to one place: a memorial brick, to be laid in his honor on a pathway near the Duke Hospice Unicorn Bereavement Center in Hillsborough, North Carolina. ... Over the ensuing years, the brick became a place of solace and learning for Peluso’s family. Before she died, Peluso’s mother often visited the site, and Peluso [a former Duke University Health System nurse and recipient of this center's bereavement counseling] said she brings her children and grandchildren — who never met her father — to the brick to teach them about his legacy. Underneath her father’s name and lifespan, the brick reads, “I will love you longer than forever.” But while the love of Peluso’s family will endure, the brick itself will be torn up as part of a redevelopment of the property encompassing the former Unicorn Bereavement Center and Duke Hospice at the Meadowlands. 

Ready, Fire, Aim: The CY 2027 Home Health Proposed Rule's shoot-first approach to provider enrollment 
Husch Blackwell | Hospice Insights; by Bryan Nowicki and Andrew Brenton; 8/26/26 
CMS’s CY 2027 Home Health Proposed Rule tucks a sweeping set of Medicare provider enrollment changes inside what is nominally a routine payment rule, expanding the grounds on which CMS can deny or revoke a provider’s enrollment. In this episode, Husch Blackwell’s Bryan Nowicki and Andrew Brenton unpack several of the rule’s most consequential proposals, including new denial and revocation grounds and retroactive revocation effective dates. They also discuss why home health agencies and hospices should be paying close attention as the rule moves toward finalization.

DOJ prioritizes hospice, home health fraud enforcement 
Hospice News; by MK Manoylov; 8/26/26 
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Fraud Division has designated home health and hospice as among its top enforcement priorities. The agency plans to use innovative data analysis to target fraud schemes in these industries, according to a Thursday memorandum. The agency plans to further crack down on healthcare fraud by increasing the headcount of its Health Care Fraud Strike Force model to about 500 attorneys and staff by Aug. 24.

California and the federal government battle over hospice fraud, as victims lose coverage and care 
Regional Media News, Los Angeles, CA; by wrnnews.com; 8/26/26
At 71 and a few years into retirement, Linda Henry felt like she was in good health, and only went to her doctor in Southern California for the occasional checkup. So it was a shock when she found out in 2024 that she had been enrolled in hospice, a specialized end-of-life care usually provided to people with six months or less to live. A Medicare worker told her the system said she had heart failure. Henry was a victim of rampant fraud in the hospice industry, a problem that’s been especially extreme in California, ... Henry believes her Medicare number was stolen after a healthcare payment portal that services insurances was hit by a cyberattack. She found out about her hospice enrollment in September 2024 after her doctor billed Medicare for an allergy test and was denied. Soon, other claims were being returned unpaid.

Why Hospice Austin is training frontline staff on specialized dementia care 
KXAN Austin, TX; by Avery Travis; 8/26/26 
A Central Texas hospice service received national recognition for investing in dementia-specific training and certification for frontline caregivers, as the impact of dementia grows in the United States. According to Hospice Austin and Austin Palliative Care, it recently became the only hospice organization in the country to be named to the National Council of Certified Dementia Practitioners' Memory Care Excellence Network. Diana Wagner, the Director of Education and Training at Hospice Austin and Austin Palliative Care, spoke to KXAN's Avery Travis and Will DuPree about the nuance needed to care for someone with dementia at the end of their life. ... Wagner said her team worked to certify more than 70% of their frontline staff in dementia care.

Camp gives local students a hands-on look at careers in health care 
MaineHealth, North Conway, NH; Press Release; 8/25/26
More than 20 local middle and high school students spent a week this summer discovering that there is much more to health care than what happens in a hospital room. MaineHealth Memorial Hospital’s annual Health Camp offered in partnership with MWV School to Career Summer Program gave students an opportunity to explore a wide range of health care careers through hands-on activities, demonstrations, games and behind-the-scenes experiences throughout the hospital. Throughout the week, campers rotated through hospital departments and interactive activities, getting a firsthand look at the many skills, roles and professions that contribute to patient care.

What health system CEOs fear most about AI 
Becker's Health IT; by Laura Dyrda; 8/26/26  
The list of what artificial intelligence promises to fix in healthcare is long: administrative burden, diagnostic accuracy, care coordination, staffing shortages. But the things it could break, according to executives at major health systems, deserves equal attention. When asked to name the most dangerous trend in healthcare today, leaders from systems including Baystate Health, Banner Health and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital pointed to AI — not as a technology to reject, but as a force whose adoption is outpacing the governance, human investment and cultural change required to make it work safely. Their concerns gather around three themes:

• the erosion of human judgment and connection,
• inadequate accountability frameworks and
• the workforce consequences of deploying AI without deliberate reskilling.

List of 2026 deaths in popular music 
Wikipedia; 8/24/26 
This is a list of notable performers of rock music and other forms of popular music, and others directly associated with the music as producers, songwriters, or in other closely related roles, who died in 2026.

Executive Personnel Changes - 8/28/26

• The National Partnership for Healthcare and Hospice Innovation (NPHI) announced that Calvin McDaniel will join the organization as Vice President of Strategic Engagement in late September.
  
  
• Midland Care in Topeka, KS has named Scott A. Paxton, DO as its new Hospice and Palliative Care Medical Director.
  
  
• LeadingAge has named Carey Candrian as their Senior Vice President of Research and Programs.
  

This last weekend of August, spend more time watching sunsets than Netflix. ~ Anonymous