Literature Review

Chapters Health System announces joint venture with Preferred Care The Best Times, Temple Terrace, FL; Press Release; 8/19/26 Chapters Health System announced today the launch of a new joint venture with Preferred Care, a home health agency in Florida, to expand hospice care in Southwest Florida. The partnership creates a new offering through Preferred Care Hospice, which was granted approval through the certificate of need program to offer vital hospice services in Collier County. "The opportunity to work with Preferred Care to help expand hospice services in Florida is the chance to align with an organization that has the same legacy of quality and exceptional service that is deeply rooted in Chapters Health System," said Andrew Molosky, President and CEO, Chapters Health System. 

Marketer Abraham Shin named in federal hospice fraud indictment Before It's News, Washington, DC; 8/18/26 Federal prosecutors have identified marketer Abraham Shin as an alleged operational link inside a Southern California hospice network, accusing him of connecting Medicare beneficiaries, sensitive personal information, paid referrals, and four providers that collectively submitted approximately $27,731,000 in disputed claims. Shin, 66, of Corona, California, is charged alongside hospice operator Oren David Shachar and mortuary employee Jeannie Choi in a 16-count indictment alleging healthcare fraud, aggravated identity theft, kickbacks, and a coordinated effort involving both living beneficiaries and people who had already died. The government alleges that Shin entered the wider operation no later than March 2025, more than four years after prosecutors say Shachar began the charged scheme, making his alleged conduct narrower in duration but central to several of its most serious later transactions.

HHS decertifies Kentucky organ procurement organization Hazard Herald, Hazard, KY; by an Appalachian Newspapers Staff Report; 8/15/26 The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced in a statement Aug. 5 that it has decertified Network For Hope, the federally designated organ procurement organization serving Kentucky and parts of Indiana, Ohio and West Virginia. According to the statement, the move comes after multiple federal reviews found "persistent safety failures despite extensive oversight and despite Network for Hope having been provided repeated opportunities to correct them." The failures, according to the statement, put prospective organ donors and patients awaiting lifesaving transplants at risk.

ChatGPT Health now open to all US users Becker's Health IT; by Naomi Diaz; 7/23/26 OpenAI has expanded Health, a ChatGPT feature that lets users securely connect personal health data, to all eligible users in the U.S. The rollout covers logged-in users age 18 and older on web and iOS across the Free, Go, Plus and Pro plans, according to a July 23 OpenAI news release. Health lets users connect Apple Health data and supported medical records from U.S. hospital systems, One Medical or Function Health. With permission, ChatGPT can then use that information across any conversation, not just within a dedicated Health tab, to compare lab results, summarize changes since a last appointment, or factor in a recent injury or dietary restriction. ... The expansion comes as OpenAI faces a lawsuit over ChatGPT’s health guidance. A lawsuit filed July 21 claims ChatGPT offered inaccurate medical guidance to a Florida man that resulted in delayed care for a pulmonary embolism, and the plaintiff has asked the court to stop ChatGPT Health from operating until independent evaluators verify its safety.

Detroit teen’s cancer death sparks 5K walk and new Georgia diploma law hoodline, Detroit, MI; by Jerry McAllister; 8/16/26 A Detroit family walked the riverfront near their old neighborhood this week to honor a 15-year-old whose fight with a rare bone cancer ended in his death nearly two years ago but has since reshaped state law hundreds of miles away in Georgia. GaKobe Milton, who once lived in Detroit before his family relocated to Atlanta, was diagnosed with osteosarcoma at age 13 in 2022 and died on December 10, 2024, after a two-year battle with the disease. His mother, Kuleesha Milton, brought his memory back to the city he called home with a 5K walk at Alfred Brush Ford Park along the Detroit Riverfront. ... Georgia lawmakers signed the GaKobe Milton Act into law in his honor, and Governor Brian Kemp signed House Bill 1284 on May 5, according to the Georgia General Assembly. The law requires local school boards to petition the State Board of Education within 14 days for graduation requirement waivers, allowing schools to award diplomas to terminally ill students receiving end-of-life care, or posthumously if necessary. The act waives completion of all remaining high school graduation requirements for eligible terminally ill students.

Nearly one in five Medicare hospice patients now leaves the program alive rather than through death Medical Daily; by Dorothy Brooks; 8/17/26 Almost one in five people who leave Medicare hospice care each year leaves alive rather than through death, and the share has climbed every year since 2021. Federal data released this spring put the live discharge rate at 19.1 percent in fiscal year 2025, up from 16.9 percent four years earlier. For families, this is the rule almost nobody explains at enrollment. Hospice is not a permanent placement. It is a benefit tied to a prognosis, and when that prognosis changes, the benefit can end while the patient is still living, still ill, and still needing care. Understanding it before it happens is the difference between a planned transition and a phone call that lands like an eviction.

You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.  ~ Thomas Merton

45 minutes saved per admission: how one hospice is re-shaping their businessHospice News; by Jack Silverstein; 8/17/26When Dar Miller came to Faith Hospice of Arizona two years ago, the organization’s census was just over 100 and their staff worked overtime to enter patient profiles. Now, their average daily census is 135-140, while their nurses have more time available at the bedside and with families. The change? Faith Hospice’s relationship with their pharmacy partner OnePoint Patient Care, whose combination of collaboration, communication, integrated technology and process ensures that hospices are not only getting the best pharmacy service possible, but that their operation is always evolving with the times.

4 huge Medicare pay reforms are part of new bipartisan House bill American Medical Association (AMA); by Tanya Albert Henry; 8/11/26 With more physician Medicare pay cuts proposed for 2027, a new comprehensive, bipartisan bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives would finally make structural changes that are needed to prevent those cuts and create a payment system that helps ensure that America’s seniors have access to quality, value-based healthcare. The AMA-supported Patients First Act (H.R. 9693) addresses four core reforms that the AMA and organized medicine have long sought from Washington. If passed, the bill would:

Columbus Hospice purse party raises $16,000 at Bibb Mill Event Center WTVM-9, Columbus, GA; by Jason Williams; 8/15/26 Columbus Hospice hosted its 11th annual Purse Party at the Bibb Mill Event Center, raising $16,000 — surpassing its $10,000 fundraising goal. ... More than 400 purses were available at the event. Attendees could visit a bargain table, make a donation in exchange for a purse, bid in a silent auction, or participate in a live auction that featured male models displaying purses. ... Terri Roberts, vice president of business development at Columbus Hospice, said all funds raised go back into the organization’s mission. “And we do not turn anybody away regardless of their ability to pay. ..."

Do unto those downstream as you would have those upstream do unto you. ~ Wendell Berry

AARP is working to root out health care ageism AARP; by Megan O'Reilly; 7/27/26 ... In collaboration with the Gerontological Society of America, AARP launched a training program last year to help future health professionals recognize and stop age-based bias. Tested at 13 universities across the country with about 500 students, the program uses health care scenarios and practical tools that remind providers to listen first and treat people as individuals, not stereotypes. ... Additionally, AARP has pushed for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to allow Medicare to cover essential training for family caregivers. And we fought for a measure to assess hospitals’ commitment to improving care for older patients. We also collaborated with the Geriatric Emergency Department Collaborative to train ER personnel to recognize dementia symptoms. ...