November 2025 Healthcare Observances
Hospice & Palliative Care Today; by Joy Berger; 10/29/25
Ongoing, visit our Healthcare Observances webpage for additional dates

Month-Long Observances, November 1-30, 2025

• National Family Caregivers Month — month-long, led by Caregiver Action Network (CAN). 2025 theme: “Plug-in to Care.” Caregiver Action Network
• Home Care & Hospice Month / National Care at Home Month — observed across the sector; the Alliance for Care at Home (successor to NAHC and NHPCO) structures the month into four themed weeks below. Alliance for Care at Home

Weekly Observances, November 2025

• Hospice & Palliative Care Week: Nov 2–8, 2025, Alliance for Care at Home
• Home Care Week: Nov 9–15, 2025, Alliance for Care at Home
• Medicaid HCBS Week: Nov 16–22, 2025, Alliance for Care at Home
• Home Health Week: Nov 23–29, 2025, Alliance for Care at Home
• National Nurse Practitioner (NP) Week: Nov 9–15, 2025, AANP

Single-day observance

• National Rural Health Day: Thursday, Nov 20, 2025, NOSORH
  

Improving end-of-life care: Making hospice and home support accessible 
Cure; by Maureen Canavan and Dr. Kerin Adelson; 10/22/25 
Maureen Canavan and Dr. Kerin Adelson, healthcare executive, chief quality and value officer, and professor of Breast Medical Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center, sat down with us to discuss critical issues in end-of-life care. In this interview, they explore the urgent need for policy and system-level changes to improve access to hospice and supportive home care, highlighting how current reimbursement structures often fail to meet the needs of patients and families at the end of life. Canavan is an epidemiologist at Yale Cancer Outcomes, Public Policy, and Effectiveness Research Center (COPPER) and affiliated faculty at Yale Institute for Global Health.

Coming soon: VITAS Healthcare Hospice care in Pinellas County 
South Florida Hospital News and Healthcare Report; by cfelixcpa; 10/29/25 
Beginning Nov. 3, residents of Pinellas County will have improved access to quality end-of-life care through VITAS Healthcare, ... VITAS will accept hospice-eligible referrals for patients in Clearwater, St. Petersburg, Tarpon Springs and surrounding communities. According to research, only 61% of Medicare decedents in Florida access the Medicare Hospice Benefit—meaning many patients and families miss out on the medical, emotional and spiritual support available near the end of life.

Kalos Health shutters amid Medicaid changes 
Hospice News; by Holly Vossel; 10/29/25 
Kalos Health Inc. is closing amid changes to Medicaid reimbursement. The change could challenge access to home-based services for chronically ill adults in western New York. The nonprofit provided health insurance coverage across six counties in New York through a Medicaid managed long-term care (MLTC) plan. Since 2014, the plan has coordinated with regional health care providers to serve adults with chronic illness and health disabilities. Kalos Health is part of The Hospice and Palliative Care Group (HPCG), an organization that provides administrative services. Other providers in the group include Niagara Hospice, Liberty Home Care, Hospice of Orleans and The Niagara Hospice Alliance.  

Love, loss and last wishes fulfilled at Duke HomeCare & Hospice: Staff members regularly make miracles happen 
Duke Today, Durham, NC; by Working@Duke; 10/29/25 
The bell chimed three times at Hock Family Pavilion, and everyone knew what it meant. Duke HomeCare & Hospice nurses and workers stepped into the hallway of Duke’s 12-person inpatient hospice facility, solemnly waiting in silence. Anthony Wilkie, a Duke Clinical Nurse, had been bracing himself for the moment with a mixture of sorrow and humility. When a bell rings three times at Hock Family Pavilion, a patient has just died and a ritual is about to begin. ...

Four nurses in two weeks assaulted at Essentia Hospitals: Nurses say violence is a consequence of unsafe staffing and inaction 
Minnesota Nurses Association, Brainer, MN; Press Release; 10/28/25
Nurses with the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) are once again outraged and deeply concerned after two more violent assaults on nurses at Essentia Health. A nurse at Essentia Health St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Brainerd was attacked by a patient last Thursday, followed by another assault at the same facility over the weekend. The latest incidents come less than two weeks after two nurses were injured at Essentia Health St. Mary’s Medical Center in Duluth. Four nurses assaulted in under two weeks reflects a dangerous pattern in Essentia facilities—one that nurses have been warning about for years.
Editor's Note: Continue reading for preventable actions and red flags, "True safety comes from care-based prevention." These were hospital settings; the home care settings your staff and volunteers enter provide much higher risks with less control. Ask your direct care staff for examples of professional situations that were unsafe. Office-based leaders, you might be surprised. Examine your workplace violence policies, procedures, trainings, incident reporting, and follow-up.

The silent crisis of Gen AI anxiety in the workplace 
HR Perspectives; by Dr. Gleb Tsipursky; 10/27/25 
The conversation about generative AI (Gen AI) is unavoidable in today’s business landscape. It’s disruptive, transformative, and packed with potential—both thrilling and intimidating. As organizations adopt Gen AI to streamline operations, develop products, or enhance customer interactions, the inevitable side effect among employees is anxiety. Will jobs vanish? Will expectations shift overnight? Can they keep up with the learning curve? These questions aren’t just whispers in the break room; they’re front and center for many teams. 

CMS’s Special Focus Facility Program for Nursing Homes has not yielded lasting improvements
OIG press release; 10/29/25
This report evaluated the effectiveness of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Special Focus Facility (SFF) program, the agency’s flagship effort to address quality problems at the nation’s poorest-performing nursing homes. OIG found nearly two-thirds of facilities that graduated from the SFF program between 2013 and 2022 later exhibited recurring quality issues. Among nursing homes that received a serious deficiency in the three years after graduating, 38% put residents at risk of serious injury, harm, impairment or death. For program improvement, OIG recommended that CMS use more nonfinancial remedies, assess enforcement effectiveness—especially for staffing deficiencies—and incorporate ownership data.
Publisher's note: It's interesting to see what works - and what doesn't work - from the CMS / OIG perspective.

Palliative care legislation exploding at state level, but policy gaps remain, study reveals 
McKnights Home Care: by Adam Healy; 10/27/25 
States are becoming increasingly focused on palliative care. Since 2009, the number of palliative care-related bills introduced at the state level has grown at a rapid pace, according to a new study published in JAMA Network Open. ... Of the 819 bills introduced between 2009 and 2023, roughly 30% were eventually passed into law. ... Bills related to palliative care quality and public awareness bills were the most likely to pass, it found. Meanwhile, relatively few bills governing palliative care workforce, clinical skill building and patient rights passed during the study period.

Healthcare trends & transactions Q3 2025 
JD Supra; by Delaney Durst, Ali Gallagher, Angela Humphreys, Ben Kelly, Zoebedeh Malakpa, Mariah R. Rhodes, Marc Rigsby, Morgan Tandy, David Wilson; 10/29/25  
[Scroll down to "Home Health, Hospice Care & Personal Care Services"]
The home health and hospice sector saw a modest decline in deal activity since Q2, as the industry faced changes in Medicare reimbursement rates and ongoing regulatory uncertainty. The most notable transaction in the space occurred in August when, following two years of regulatory scrutiny, UnitedHealth closed its $3.3 billion acquisition of Amedisys, a provider of home health and hospice services.  ... In the hospice sector, LifeCare Home Health announced in September its acquisition of St. Gabriel’s Hospice & Palliative Care, a hospice care provider serving approximately 300 patients in Texas, and BaneCare Management, a senior care services provider in Massachusetts, announced its acquisition of Longwood Hospice.

• Alive, Nashville-based in-home health care and hospice provider, has selected Dr. Karen Hyden, PhD, MSN/Ed, APN-BC, ACHPN, LC Pastoral Counselor as Chief Nursing Officer.
• Carolina Caring announces that Dana Killian, MBA, FACHE, will be transitioning from her role as President and Chief Executive Officer into a new professional opportunity as Chief Growth Officer with Everent Health, a Kentucky based non-profit organization.
• Carolina Caring is pleased to share that Christina McNally, Carolina Caring’s Chief Strategy Officer, will serve as Interim Chief Executive Officer effective November 10th, 2025, as a search is conducted for a permanent CEO.
• CHAP is pleased to welcome Mary Jane (MJ) Ruppert, RN, CHC as our new Director of Regulatory Affairs.
• Gilchrist [Maryland] announces Sara McKay will now assume the role of Chief Business Development Officer for Gilchrist, having served previously as CEO of Hospice of Washington County and Franklin Hospice. 
• LifeTouch Health of North Little Rock [formerly Arkansas Hospice Family of Care] has named Jessica K. Ellis, Ph.D., MBA, as its new vice president and chief operating officer.

Halloween was confusing. All my life my parents said, ‘Never take candy from strangers.’ And then they dressed me up and said, 'Go beg for it.' ~ Rita Rudner