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.

National Alliance for Care at Home hosts 2026 Finance and Technology Summit 
National Alliance for Care at Home, Alexandria, VA; Press Release; 7/14/26 
On July 12-14, the National Alliance for Care at Home (the Alliance) successfully hosted the 2026 Alliance Finance and Technology Summit in Boston, MA. The Summit brought together leaders from across the care at home continuum, with expert-led sessions, peer collaboration, and insights into digital transformation, data strategy, and tech-enabled care delivery. More than 600 attendees and exhibitors participated in the comprehensive program, which featured keynote presentations, concurrent educational sessions, networking opportunities, award presentations, and a fundraiser at Fenway Park for the Research Institute for Home Care.

Arden Home Health and Hospice celebrates Grand Opening of Vicksburg branch 
Vicksburg Daily News (VDN), Vicksburg, MS; Press Release; 7/10/26 
Arden Home Health and Hospice held a ribbon-cutting and open house to mark the grand opening of its new Vicksburg hospice branch at 1650 US 61, Suite D. The new branch expands Arden’s established home health presence in Vicksburg, adding hospice services for patients and families in Claiborne, Jefferson, Warren, Yazoo, Holmes, Humphreys, Sharkey, and Issaquena counties. ... Prior to this expansion, families in these communities were forced to travel significant distances for advanced hospice care.

The Joint Commission Home Health Accreditation 
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services | FederalRegister.gov; Announcemen; scheduled to be published on 7/10/26  
The Federal Register announced on July 9, 2026 that the application from The Joint Commission for continued CMS approval of its Home Health Agency (HHA) accreditation program has been approved by CMS. The approval is applicable from March 31, 2026 through March 31, 2032. 

HMN 2026: How Kids should be involved in their health care. Here’s how to make that happen 
Health Medicine Network; by HealthMedicinet; 7/9/26 
Children have a right to learn, play and grow. To help children thrive, parents and health care professionals must ensure they get the medical support they need. However, existing evidence shows we could involve children more in their health care appointments. Research suggests children who actively participate in their own treatment recover faster from surgery, have less anxiety and feel more valued. Our new study examines what practices may help children be involved in health care appointments. So what are they? And how can we implement them?

Hospice of Westchester receives donation from NYS Tribute Foundation 
Yonkers Times, White Plains, NY; by Dan Murphy; 7/12/26 
Hospice of Westchester (HOW) recently received a $10,000 donation from NYS Tribute Foundation. The funds will support HOW’s Anna & Louis H. Shereff Bereavement Program, which provides bereavement care to patients’ families for 13 months following the loss of a loved one, as well as to all members of the community. “We are grateful to the NYS Tribute Foundation for their incredible generosity and ongoing support of our mission,” said Mary K. Spengler, RN, MS, LNHA, CEO of Hospice of Westchester. ... The NYS Tribute Foundation, which unites funeral service professionals throughout New York State, is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting education, outreach and research programs that advance the public’s understanding of end-of-life issues.

The corporatization of medicine, in salaries and beds 
MedPageToday's KevinMD.com; by Brian Hudes, MD; 7/11/26 
In the 1970s, the American hospital was, in the industry’s own language, an “open workshop.” ... The doctor made the medical decisions; the administrator kept the lights on and the ledgers balanced. It was an arrangement with obvious flaws (fragmentation, duplication, uneven quality), but it rested on a clear premise: Medicine was practiced by physicians, and the institution existed to support that practice. That premise has quietly inverted. ... It is a corporation that employs them. The practice down the street has been acquired, rebranded, and folded into a system with a marketing department, a real-estate strategy, and a chief executive whose compensation would have been unimaginable to the physicians of the open-workshop era. The people who now set the direction of American medicine are, increasingly, not the people who see patients.

Executive Personnel Changes - 7/10/26

• Hospice of South Texas named Dr. Jennifer Gonzales as Medical Director, succeeding longtime Medical Director Dr. Ty Meyer, ensuring a seamless transition in physician leadership while continuing Hospice of South Texas's commitment to exceptional patient care
  
  
• Hospice of the Chesapeake in Pasadena, MD appoints three new senior leaders:
• Shawn Essien joined the organization in June as Vice President of Human Resources
• Donna Grande was appointed Chief Transformation Officer in January after joining the organization last fall
• Melanie Gibson has been named Regional Director of Hospice Operations for the southern region, which includes Calvert, Charles and Prince George’s counties
• VNA Health Group in New Jersey announces planned retirement of COO and CFO Kevin Rogers

Calendar Year (CY) 2027 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Proposed Rule 
CMS Newsroom; Fact Sheet; 7/14/26 paired with U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, CMS CY 2027 Payment Policies under the Physician Fee Schedule, 7/16/26; summary by guest editor Judi Lund Person 
On July 14, 2026, the Federal Register posted the CY 2027 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule proposed rule – CMS-1848-P. The CMS Fact Sheet on the proposed rule can be found here. While the proposed rule is 1,592 pages, there are two items of note to hospice and palliative care readers: 1) Supporting Beneficiaries Planning for Future Medical Decisions.CMS is proposing to create two new HCPCS codes to describe advance care planning (ACP) services furnished by clinical staff under the direct supervision of the billing physician or other practitioner. These new codes will more accurately distinguish and value the work done by billing practitioners from time spent by their clinical staff providing ACP services. We are further proposing that the existing ACP CPT codes 99497 and 99498 would only be used to report time personally spent by the billing practitioner. 2) RFI on Community-based Palliative Care, asking questions on eligibility for serious illness care and palliative care, the future of care management services and advanced primary care management.   

[United Kingdom] Man, 94, taking on 100-mile walking challenge 
BBC News; Andy Giddings; 7/13/26 
A man is planning to mark his 95th birthday by completing a 100-mile walking challenge for charity in memory of his wife. Smudge Smith, who lives in Telford and is a regular walker, is doing it to support Severn Hospice and hopes to complete the challenge in 100 days. His wife Margaret was cared for by the hospice in Bicton and since her death he has completed a number of fundraising walks to support it and other charities. He plans to get out each day on one of his five pre-planned routes and he will be joined by friends and family including his children Diane, Sue and David. Smith, who lives in the Ketley Bank area of Telford, set off on 3 July and aims to finish the challenge by his birthday on 14 October. 

Savings in Medicare hospice payments for care provided in nursing homes 
U.S. HHS-OIG; Project Number OEI-02-26-00180; 7/15/26 
The HHS OIG today announced an addition to the OIG Workplan to review the routine home care payments paid for patients in nursing homes. The fixed daily rates that Medicare pays hospices for routine home care provided in a nursing home include personal care services.  However, nursing homes are already required to provide personal care services to their residents.  Paying the hospice the full routine home care rate that covers personal care services when these services are already required from the nursing home can undermine the efficiency of Medicare payments and add to the incentives that bad actors have to exploit the program.  This review will determine Medicare payments for routine home care provided to hospice beneficiaries in nursing homes, estimate potential cost savings from reducing the payment to address the inefficiency in the payment structure, and examine practices of hospices with a high percentage of their beneficiaries in nursing homes. The date for the release of the report has not been announced.

When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful. ~Malala Yousafzai