NPHI calls on CMS to enact temporary nationwide moratorium on new hospice provider enrollments to stop fraudulent operators 
National Partnership for Healthcare and Hospice Innovation (NPHI), Washington, DC; Press Release; 3/25/26 
The National Partnership for Healthcare and Hospice Innovation (NPHI), representing the nation’s leading nonprofit, mission-driven, safety-net, hospice and advanced illness care providers, is calling on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to implement a temporary, nationwide moratorium on new hospice provider enrollments in response to the continued growth of fraudulent providers exploiting the Medicare hospice benefit. In a letter sent today to CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz and Deputy Administrator Kimberly Brandt, NPHI outlines concerns regarding the unchecked expansion of fraudulent hospice providers and the impact on patients, families, and the integrity of the Medicare program.

In fight against fraud, leading national organizations urge CMS to take action while protecting legitimate providers and patient access 
The National Alliance for Care at Home (the Alliance); Press Release; 3/25/26
The National Alliance for Care at Home (the Alliance), LeadingAge, LeadingAge California, and the California Association for Health Services at Home (CAHSAH) in a March 25, 2026 letter to Dr. Mehmet Oz, Administrator, ​the ​Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), commend the agency’s actions to protect Medicare beneficiaries, preserve the integrity of the hospice and home health benefits, and root out bad actors who are exploiting the program and harming patients and families. At the same time, the associations emphasize the need for a carefully targeted federal response to protect current and prospective patients, and preserve access to care delivered by trustworthy providers.

Medicare plan switching and hospice care among decedents with advanced cancer 
JAMA Network Open; by Xin Hu, Changchuan Jiang, Youngmin Kwon, Fangli Geng, Qinjin Fan, Kewei Sylvia Shi, Zhiyuan Zheng, Jingxuan Zhao, Joan L Warren, K Robin Yabroff, Xuesong Han; 3/2/16
Importance: Hospice ... is an excluded benefit under Medicare Advantage (MA), with coverage instead provided by traditional Medicare (TM). With growing MA penetration, more beneficiaries also switch between MA and TM for financial protection and physician access considerations, although less is known about how different Medicare programs and plan switching behaviors affect EOL care for patients with advanced cancers.
Conclusions and relevance: In this cohort study of Medicare decedents with advanced cancers, continuous MA enrollees were most likely to receive hospice at home, while those who switched from MA to TM more frequently received hospice care in nursing homes. Plan switching near the EOL may reflect access barriers, highlighting the importance of addressing care coordination to improve EOL care.

Hospice of the Golden Isles received donation from Terry Thomas Foundation 
The Brunswick News, Brunswick, GA; by Amy Broderick; 3/25/26 
For more than a decade, the Terry Thomas Foundation has partnered with Hospice of the Golden Isles (HGI) to support important initiatives for the Hospice Home campus. During that time, the foundation has contributed more than $155,000 to help enhance care and services for hospice patients and their families. This year’s grant will enable HGI to purchase 12 new oxygen concentrators, meeting a vital need for high-quality, dependable oxygen support for patients receiving end-of-life care. 

Building excellence: The journey to American Heart Association Certification 
Journal of Hospice & Palliative Nursing; by Fahey, Donna M. MSN, MFA, RN, AHN-BC, CHPN, CNL; 3/24/26
Heart failure patients often arrive at hospice with advanced symptoms, variable care plans, and limited coordination across settings. To address this, Samaritan Healthcare and Hospice pursued the American Heart Association Palliative/Hospice–Heart Failure Certification. The initiative required a full system redesign focused on standardizing education, documentation, care coordination, and performance measurements. This article outlines the challenges encountered ... and describes the process used to achieve certification in October 2025. 

End-of-life care planning for individuals with special needs
JD Supra; by Chamblis, Bahner & Stophel, P.C.; 3/23/26 
Takeaways

• Beginning end-of-life care discussions long before a crisis arises, using clear, plain language like “dying” and “death” allows the person with an intellectual or developmental disability (IDD) time to understand and revisit topics gradually.
• Individuals with IDD have the right to express their preferences. Adapt the conversation using visuals or short discussions, and offer concrete choices to help them communicate their desires.
• Once their wishes are known, work with trusted supporters to formally document them in legal forms such as advance directives to ensure their voice is honored in all future care decisions.

CMS clarifies hospice revocations, face-to-face encounters 
McKnights Home Care; by Suzy Frisch; 3/24/26 
If a hospice patient is discharged from care or has their benefits revoked, they do not have to complete a waiting period to arrange for new care, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which provided such clarifications earlier this month. If a hospice patient is discharged from care or has their benefits revoked, they do not have to complete a waiting period to arrange for new care, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which provided such clarifications earlier this month. 

Gone from my sight: Barbara Karnes on what happens in the final days of life | part one 
Teleios Collaborative Network (TCN); podcast hosted by Chris Comeaux with Barbara Karnes; 3/25/26 
Drawing from over four decades of bedside experience, Barbara shares how Hospice Care began as a movement outside the traditional medical model, rooted not in treating disease, but in caring for people and their families during life’s most vulnerable moments.  Her insights challenge modern healthcare to return to a more human-centered approach—one that prioritizes presence, education, and compassion.

Medicare Advantage ‘working’ for seniors, but not for taxpayers, experts say: Penn LDI panel cites costs for enrollees alongside billions in overpayments and systemic gaming 
Penn LDI - Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics; by Hoag Levins; 3/23/26 
In response to the question “Is Medicare Advantage Working?” posed in a University of Pennsylvania panel discussion, two top experts concurred that the program is “working” in one narrow but powerful sense: It delivers more appealing coverage to many seniors, especially those with modest incomes. But it is not “working” in the sense originally promised by policymakers, because it is not saving public money and has encouraged a range of payment distortions, coding games, marketing excesses, and utilization-management conflicts.

HMN 2026: How Nursing’s moral agency cannot be outsourced to AI 
Health Medicine Network; by George Demiris, PhD, Patricia Brennan, PhD. Oonjee Oh, MSN, and Sang Bin You, MSN; 3/24/26 
... Recommendations for health  systems: The article emphasizes that nurses must not be passive users of technology but active leaders in its design and implementation. To preserve the public’s trust, the authors offer several critical recommendations.

• Design Participation: Nurses must be part of AI design teams to ensure tools align with clinical values and preferences.
• Transparency as Default: Facilities should explicitly disclose when AI is used to generate summaries or treatment suggestions, allowing patients and clinicians to understand the source of information.
• Boundaries on AI Hiring: AI should never be used to determine the hiring of nurses, as algorithms cannot identify the human characteristics of empathy and critical reasoning.
• Preserving Accountability: AI should be treated as a resource to support, rather than supplant, human moral deliberation.

21 hospitals, health systems raising workers’ pay
Becker's Hospital Review; by Kelly Gooch; 3/24/26 
Since December 2025, the following hospitals and health systems have said they plan to raise their workers’ pay. ... This webpage was created Jan. 9 and is updated regularly. It was last updated March 24.

1. Little Rock-based University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences is raising its minimum wage from $15 to $16 per hour, effective April 12. ...
2. Members of the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals ratified contracts covering about 31,000 Kaiser Permanente workers. ...
3. Members of the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals ratified contracts covering about 31,000 Kaiser Permanente workers. The agreements include the union’s largest wage increases to date. ...
4. New Orleans-based LCMC Health is raising its minimum wage to $15 an hour, effective April 5. ...
5. Durham, N.C.-based Duke University and Duke University Health System is raising its minimum wage for eligible employees to $20 per hour, effective July 1. ...

... And they'll walk out to the bleachers, and sit in shirt-sleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game, and it'll be as if they'd dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick, they'll have to brush them away from their faces. ~ from Field of Dreams, actor James Earl Jones
Today is 2026's Opening Day of Baseball!