The future of care at home demands a new narrative
HomeCare; by Jennifer Sheets; 10/6/26
No one disputes that fraud, waste and abuse have no place in Medicare or Medicaid. Our community has been clear and consistent on that point. But there’s a difference between rooting out bad actors and treating an entire sector as suspect until proven otherwise. Right now, we are drifting toward the latter.

How investing in AI can help home care head off Medicare denials, suspensions
McKnights Home Care; by John Roszkowski; 10/9/26
As government regulators are increasingly using artificial intelligence to identify irregular billing patterns to detect potential fraud and health insurance companies use AI to justify claims denials, home care providers often find themselves at a major disadvantage. Providers need to proactively invest in the right AI technology to address compliance gaps or risk the possibility of regulatory audits, claims denials, or even worse, possible suspension or revocation from the Medicare program.

BJC HealthCare to build 1st dedicated hospice house in St. Louis
Becker's Hospital Review; by Mariah Taylor; 10/7/26
St. Louis-based BJC HealthCare plans to open the first dedicated hospice house in the city on its Barnes-Jewish Hospital campus. Evelyn’s House will be a 12-bed hospice house that builds on the system’s original model, which launched in 2017... Construction is expected to begin in 2027, and the facility is expected to open in 2028.

Hospice waits on a court order when no family can speak for you
The Podcast by KevinMD; 10/8/26
A man is dying. He cannot speak, and no one in his life can say what he would have wanted. Kirsten Engel is a palliative medicine physician, and Medha Tripathi is a health writer and incoming Fulbright research scholar. This episode is based on their article “Guardianship and hospice care fail dying patients,” published on KevinMD. They explain what happens when a patient has no family and no health care proxy, and a court appoints a guardian who has never met them. A move to comfort measures then needs a court date that can take weeks, while the hospital works in hours and days.
Publisher's note: How often do hospices serve patients with no family and/or health care proxy? What challenges do you face? What solutions are available?

Staying with patients and your people
Forbes; by Monica Cutia; 10/9/26
Monica Cutia, BSN, RN, PHN, COS-C, VP of Clinical Operations, HealthView Home Healthcare, Hospice & Palliative Care... What Leaders Can Do. If you run a service organization, there are a few things I’ve found useful.

• Assign for continuity first and efficiency second. Measure how often a family sees the same faces, not just how many visits you complete.
• Treat your first point of contact as the beginning of the clinical relationship. Then, staff it that way.
• Ask your strongest people how they think they’re doing. Be ready for the answer to surprise you.
• When someone leaves, ask what you can learn before you ask what it says about you. Use the departure to identify what your organization can do differently to strengthen continuity for the people who remain.

Families aren’t measuring us on scale or technology. They’re measuring whether the person who came last week is the person who came today, and whether anyone remembered what they said.

Out now: the Global Atlas of Palliative Care, 3rd edition
Worldwide Hospice Pallaitive Care Alliance (WHPCA); by Stephen R. Connor; 10/9/26
Today, at the 50th Montréal International Palliative Care Congress, we launched the third edition of the Global Atlas of Palliative Care. It offers the most complete picture yet of who needs palliative care worldwide, and who is receiving it. The picture shows real progress, but a gap that remains very wide.

• 73.5 million people are estimated to need palliative care every year.
• About 14% of that need is met by specialised palliative care services. In low- and middle-income countries, only 4% of people in need receive it.
• 25,000 → 33,720 The approximate growth in specialised palliative care services between 2017 and 2025. Patients served rose from almost 7 million to over 10.4 million.

My parents are getting older, but they've done a lot to prepare. Being honest and upfront has been the most helpful.
Business Insider; by Natalie Serianni; 10/8/26
Our parents are navigating big life transitions. [Things we've found helpful include:]

• We're clear on our parents' wishes
• Knowing family medical history has been helpful
• We have all their important accounts and information
• Our parents have told us what to do with special items
• Prioritizing honesty has been key

What physician mothers miss while caring for everyone else
KevinMD; by Loryn Kromrey; 10/7/26
Medicine and motherhood were intertwined from the very beginning. My water broke while I was in the operating room with my first baby, and he was born just two hours later... As physician mothers, we spend so much of our lives taking care of other people’s families. As an anesthesiologist, I had the privilege of caring for children and adults during some of the most vulnerable moments of their lives. I found so much purpose in my work, and I took that responsibility seriously. But it also came with immense pressure and days that pushed me to my limits. Stepping away gave me the perspective to see how often my own children sometimes got what was left of me after I had spent the day taking care of everyone else. I don’t say that with guilt. It’s simply something I couldn’t see until life forced me to slow down.

Janet Abrahm at COGC 2026: Grief, Guilt, and the Emotional Burden of Cancer Care
OncoDaily; by Eliz Baloyan; 10/8/26
At the Community Oncology Global Congress (COGC 2026), organized by OncoDaily, Janet Abrahm, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Institute Physician at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, shifted the conversation from cancer treatment to the clinicians delivering it. Her focus was on the role of supportive oncology in recognizing and preventing burnout and compassion fatigue, particularly among clinicians repeatedly exposed to suffering, loss, difficult decisions, and limited resources.

Sometimes leadership means changing your socks
Police1; by Lieutenant Frank V. Fanelli; 10/7/26
A simple reset can help police supervisors keep frustration, disappointment and yesterday’s setbacks from shaping their next conversation. After more than three decades in law enforcement, I’ve learned that leadership often begins before anyone else realizes it. It starts in those few moments before a meeting, a briefing or a difficult conversation, when we’re deciding what version of ourselves is about to walk into the room. Oddly enough, one of the best leadership lessons I have learned did not come from a police academy, a supervisor or a leadership conference. It came from filmmaker Jon Favreau. In a recent interview, Favreau described how his film crews survived the long days of production. Whenever fatigue set in and everyone felt worn down, someone would suggest the simple ritual of changing their socks. To the crew, it marked a fresh start, a chance to leave the first half of the day behind and begin the second with a different mindset. At first, I laughed. It sounded too simple to make a difference. That interview flipped a switch, making a connection I had never considered before. Then it occurred to me that the socks were never really the point. The reset was. Sometimes we simply need permission to leave behind whatever we’ve been carrying.

In current anti-fraud climate, no room for error for home health, hospice agencies
McKnights Home Care; by Liza Berger; 10/6/26
After operating hospice, home health and other companies for over a decade in Arizona, Peter prided himself on his sound reputation in the community and employees’ loyalty. He never dreamed that a technical error on a routine hospice renewal application would lead to a revocation of his hospice’s Medicare enrollment and billing privileges and leave him fighting for his livelihood.

Nurses are ready for AI. Are health systems ready to let nurses lead the way?
HealthCareBusiness; by Bethany Robertson; 10/9/26
Nearly 65% of nurses report using more AI tools today than a year ago, signaling strong adoption momentum amongst the largest workforce in healthcare. Despite this growth, many health systems still view nurses as end users of AI tools, rather than key decision-makers in selecting and implementing these solutions. Forty percent of nurses report having no real say in which AI tools their employer picks or how they get rolled out. Additionally, only 19% believe nurses have a seat at the table when these decisions are made.

The solution to all your problems may not be in Montana, but you should probably check...