The healthcare partnership nobody is talking about: hospice + FQHCs | part two
Teleios Collaborative Network (TCN); podcast hosted by Chris Comeaux with Kyle Ahlenstorf; 8/14/26 
What if one of the most promising partnerships in serious illness care has been hiding in plain sight? In Part Two of The Healthcare Partnership Nobody Is Talking About: Hospice + FQHCs, Chris Comeaux continues his conversation with Kyle Ahlenstorf about the largely untapped opportunity for hospice and palliative care organizations to collaborate with Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs).  The discussion explores how hospice and palliative care can extend an FQHC's reach into the home while FQHCs bring an established infrastructure of primary care, behavioral health, care coordination, community health workers, and preventive services.  Together, these capabilities could create a stronger continuum of care for patients with serious and chronic illness. 

Hospice of Michigan receives more than $20k in donations following Josh & Jase visit 
ABC-13, Grand Rapids, MI; by Mary Dupuis; 8/14/26 
The viral social media duo Josh & Jase have helped raise more than $20,000 for Hospice of Michigan's statewide pediatric hospice program this summer. The fundraising campaign was launched in support of the Jo Elyn Nyman Pediatric Hospice Endowment Fund. ... Josh Cauldwell-Clarke and Jase Riley became famous on social media for their travel videos reacting to American food, culture and exciting experiences. ... During their time in Grand Rapids, Josh and Jase spent time with pediatric hospice patients and their families at Hospice of Michigan. After their social media post about the visit, more than 350 donations flooded in to Hospice of Michigan from across the country. 

Grane Hospice Care rebrands as Adoration amid national expansion 
Hospice News; by Holly Vossel; 8/14/26 
Pennsylvania-based Grane Hospice Care recently rebranded as Adoration Hospice as the organization focuses on growing its continuum of care. The provider also has five new locations in its home state and is part of Adoration Health. The hospice’s name change is part of the health system’s national rescaling campaign, said Rhonda Sanders-Allamon, chief hospice growth officer of Adoration Health. The health system is rebranding other locations across its coast-to-coast geographic footprint, she stated. “We are doing a national branding and rescaling campaign so that all of our hospice locations will be under Adoration Health, our parent brand,” Sanders-Allamon told Hospice News.

Who should palliative care see? Diane Meier, Bob Arnold, and Justin Sanders 
GeriPal; by Alex Smith; 8/13/26 
As Diane Meier remarks to start today’s podcast, palliative care has come a long way from the days when we were the “brink of death” consult. We’re seeing patients earlier and earlier in the course of illness.  In fact, the evidence base for specialist palliative care is arguably stronger in the outpatient setting than the inpatient setting.  In some ways, as Eric remarked, we are a victim of our own success. We’ve pushed on the boundaries of seeing patients earlier in the course of illness, we’ve demonstrated remarkable value to our colleagues and health systems: now they want us to see more and more patients, with conditions we would not have previously considered core to palliative care practice. Our guests modeled respectful disagreement, and we were somewhat surprised that there was more agreement than we expected.  

JRMC Hospice Memorial Service 
NewsDakota.com, Jamestown, ND; by Steve Urness; 8/14/2026 
Caregivers, families and friends gathered Aug. 11 at Jamestown Regional Medical Center (JRMC) to remember loved ones during a hospice memorial service. Attendees came together to honor and reflect on those who have passed and concluded with the planting of a maple tree in JRMC’s Kornovich Healing Gardens. Members of JRMC Home Health and Hospice, including chaplains, social workers and nurses, spoke during the ceremony. ... Registered nurse Chelsey Duffy. “Hospice is about living every remaining moment with comfort, dignity, peace and love. It is about making sure no one walks this journey alone.” The newly planted maple tree will serve as a living tribute to those remembered during the service, representing both remembrance and renewal.

DOJ’s National Fraud Enforcement Division announces priorities 
ReedSmith; by Scot T. Hasselman, Selina P. Coleman, Matthew K. Loughran; 8/14/26 
In an August 13 memo, Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald set forth the priorities of the Department of Justice (DOJ) National Fraud Enforcement Division that will be focused primarily on criminal public benefits fraud and misuse of taxpayer dollars. In the health care space, the primary targets in include home health agencies and hospice providers, as well as pharmacists and physicians who may be involved in drug diversion. ... The McDonald memo details some of the efforts that the division will focus on when attempting to combat health care fraud. According to the memo, approximately 3 to 10 percent of all health care spending is the result of fraud. ... While the McDonald memo has limited details, it breaks down four other specific categories of fraud that the division will seek to prosecute.

• Public trust and financial integrity ...
• Internal Revenue ...
• Global Trade and Commerce ...
• Corporate Misconduct ...

New developments in exclusion enforcement: CMS gains exclusion authority 
Thompson Coburn LLP; by Milada R. Goturi , April R. Kirkley , Christine N. Moser; 8/14/26 
Historically, the HHS Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) has been the only agency authorized to exclude individuals and entities from Federal healthcare programs. According to a recent HHS announcement, however, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) has also been granted exclusion authority. The exclusion authority will significantly expand CMS’s existing program-integrity powers and will allow CMS to not only deny, suspend, revoke or terminate Medicare enrollment but to also prevent healthcare providers from participating in the Federal healthcare programs altogether.

Why “strong operators” struggle when they step into leadership? 
Community Health Accreditation Partner (CHAP); by Jan Sweat; 8/14/26 
In 1992, a student asked Steve Jobs what the most important thing he had learned was. The room went quiet. Jobs sat there thinking for more than twenty seconds before answering. Then he shared a lesson that has become one of the most powerful leadership insights I’ve ever heard: “I now take a longer-term view on people. In other words, when I see something not being done right, my first reaction isn’t to go fix it. It’s to say, we’re building a team here and we’re going to do great stuff for the next decade, not just the next year. And so what do I need to do to help so that the person that’s screwing up learns versus how do I fix the problem?” That quote perfectly captures the challenge many healthcare leaders face when they move from being a strong operator to leading a team. 

Reports from Duke University describe recent advances in managed care (the South had the lowest rates of hospice and palliative medicine-certified providers in the US, 2024): managed care Insurance Newsnet; by Staff; 8/13/26 
A new study on Managed Care is now available. According to news reporting originating in Durham, North Carolina, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “To improve access to care for serious illness, policy makers need evidence on how workforce capacity aligns with the need for palliative care. This study evaluated the palliative care workforce and policy environments at the state level, using a new data source: the 2024 Center to Advance Palliative Care’s comprehensive Serious Illness Scorecard.” Funders for this research include US Department of Veterans Affairs, Duke University, US Department of Veterans Affairs, Durham Center of Innovation to Accelerate Discover and Practice Transformation (ADAPT) at the Durham Veterans Affairs Health Care System. Read the study here.

Aveanna eyes home health, hospice M&A while executing preferred payer strategy 
Home Health Care News; by MK Manoylov; 8/13/26 
Aveanna Healthcare Holdings hit its preferred payer goals ahead of schedule and plans to push deeper into its fastest-growing segment — home health and hospice — through additional acquisitions. Improved federal government affairs and preferred payer results largely drove the company to update its previous 5% to 7% home health and hospice organic growth rate to 8% to 10%, Aveanna CEO Jeff Shaner said in the company’s Q2 earnings call on Thursday. “With the durability of our organic growth rates and thoughtful M&A activity, we believe Aveanna is well positioned to achieve double-digit revenue growth on an annual basis,” Shaner said.

Circle of Life to acquire Washington Regional Hospice
Talk Business & Politics; by Jeff Della Rosa; 8/14/26
Circle of Life, a nonprofit offering hospice and palliative care in Northwest Arkansas and northeast Oklahoma, will acquire Washington Regional Hospice and its Willard Walker Hospice Home in Fayetteville, the organizations said Friday (Aug. 14). Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The agreement between nonprofit health system Washington Regional and Circle of Life is expected to be completed by the end of September.

What I regret most in my life are failures of kindness. ~ George Saunders