Literature Review

Screening for intimate partner violence and caregiver abuse of older or vulnerable adults: US Preventive Services Task Force Recommendation StatementJAMA Network; 6/24/25Importance Intimate partner violence (IPV) affects millions of US residents across the lifespan and is often unrecognized. Abuse of older or vulnerable adults by a caregiver or someone else they may trust is common and can result in significant injury, death, and long-term adverse health consequences.

h/care expands presence in Arizona through partnership with American Premier Home Health, Hospice, and Palliative CareUS Daily Ledger press release; 6/24/25h/care, a national leader in home health and hospice care, proudly announces the addition of American Premier Home Health, Hospice, and Palliative Care, a highly respected provider in the Phoenix area, to its growing platform. This partnership which commenced in February marks another significant milestone in h/care’s mission to deliver high-touch, high-tech, and high-trust care to aging Americans in their homes.

Best Buy sells Current Health to former CEOModern Healthcare; by Caroline Hudson; 6/24/25Current Health cofounder Chris McGhee has reacquired the at-home care company from Best Buy Co. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed... Tech titan Best Buy announced plans to acquire Current in 2021 for about $400 million, as part of its push into the healthcare market. Current, which was founded in 2015, offers a platform for remote patient-monitoring, telehealth and patient engagement tools. It became an integral part of Best Buy Health’s efforts to expand at-home care services, including hospital-at-home technology... However, cracks in Best Buy’s healthcare strategy began to show months ago.

Dealing with death: Unavoidable med student rite of passageMedscape; by Joanna Broder; 6/23/25When Kristina Newport, MD, was a first-year medical resident doing a night shift at a small veterans’ hospital, one of her patients, who was very sick with multiple chronic diseases, made the decision to forego further treatments... Ultimately, this patient died peacefully with his daughter sitting next to him. For Newport, the experience was “remarkable” and transformative and led her to go into palliative care medicine. It was also so different from many of the patient deaths that followed, where the teams she was part of tried many interventions to no avail. “Our job is to alleviate suffering,” Newport told Medscape Medical News. “And sometimes that means allowing people to die naturally. And so, my first experience really cemented that and helped me to understand how valuable it is to play a therapeutic role in that situation and allow that process to happen.”Notable mentions: Raya Kheirbek, Ira Byock, and Kayla Fresco.

California man pleads guilty in connection with laundering proceeds of $16M hospice fraud schemeUS Department of Justice press release; 6/23/25A California man pleaded guilty today to laundering more than $4.6 million in connection with a years-long scheme to defraud Medicare of nearly $16 million through sham hospice companies. According to court documents, Mihran Panosyan, ...worked with others to launder the proceeds of a massive Medicare fraud scheme, transferring the fraudulently obtained funds between multiple accounts before spending them. The scheme comprised three parts. First, three of Panosyan’s co-defendants used the identities of foreign nationals no longer in the United States to operate several sham hospice companies... Second, the co-defendants caused the submission of false and fraudulent claims to Medicare for hospice services for patients who were not terminally ill and who never requested nor received hospice services... Third, Panosyan and his co-defendants laundered the proceeds of the scheme to conceal the source of the funds and their control over them... He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

Trellis Supportive Care names new CEO[NC] The Mt. Airy News; 6/22/25Winston-Salem Trellis Supportive Care has tapped a new president and CEO. Dr. Michael Lalor, formerly the organization's chief medical officer, was recently appointed to the post, filling a post created by the retirement of Linda Darden who. who held the posts of president and CEO since 2014. Dr. Lalor joined Trellis Supportive Care in 2014 as the chief medical officer.

Hospice of the Piedmont prioritizes mental health care[NC] Fox 8 WGHP; by Cassie Fambro; 6/20/25Dealing with a life-limiting illness can involve many trips to the doctor, pharmacy and even the emergency room at all hours and carrying around medical records and balancing medication schedules. When a physician, a patient and their family come to the decision that hospice is the right choice, new resources open up to make the physical aspect of care much easier, but that’s not all. A critical part of hospice treatment is mental health care. “We truly think of not just the patient as the one we are caring for, but their whole kind of unit … if that’s family or friends, whoever is pitching in to be part of their care team,” said Caroline Oxford, director of family care services at Hospice of the Piedmont.

[New Brunswick, Canada] Brothers who gave $50K for palliative care room at nursing home learn tough lessonCBC News; by Hannah Rudderham; 6/20/25Von Weiler family's gift in dad's memory taken apart and moved without notice... Brothers Alan and Glenn von Weiler of Saint John say they'll be more careful about future donations and ask more questions. The moment brothers Alan and Glenn von Weiler saw the palliative care room at their father's former nursing home — created in his memory — was one for the books, they say. "I think my dad would have been so happy," Glenn said. "My dad believed in giving back to the community. He did that all his life, and now he was able to do it posthumously." But just over a year after they saw the new palliative care room at the Fundy Nursing Home in Blacks Harbour, the brothers have a sour taste in their mouths. They learned from staff at the home that the room has been taken apart.Publisher's note: While this story occurred in Canada, it's an important reminder to honor donor wishes.

Post-acute clinicians to CMS: Providers need better tech infrastructure for value-based careHome Health Care News; by Joyce Famakinwa; 6/20/25The Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medical Association (PALTmed) recently penned a letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) advocating for the advancement and adoption of interoperable health information technology (health IT). PALTmed explained that the health care providers — especially post-acute and long-term care settings — are dealing with a worsening clinician shortage. It’s a pain point that greater access to health IT could help solve, according to the organization.

What you should know about radiation oncology: Anish Butala, Emily Martin and Evie KalmarGeriPal podcast; by Eric Widera, Alex Smith, Anish Butala, Emily Martin, Evie Kalmar; 6/12/25We’ve invited Anish Butala, the Chief of the Palliative Radiotherapy Service at Penn Medicine, and Emily Martin, a palliative care doctor and past president of the Society for Palliative Radiation Oncology (SPRO), to explain everything we should know about radiation oncology. Additionally, Evie Kalmar, who suggested today’s topic, will join us as one of our guest hosts.

Death equals oneJAMA Network - Poetry and Medicine; by Fanny Rancière; 6/25...The epidemiologist’s fingers dance across the keyboard, her eyes fixed on you. “No one has ever been so fascinated by my life,” you might have thought...

Whistleblowers receive $1.5 million for exposing alleged hospice kickback schemeWhistleblower Network News; by Geoff Schweller; 6/18/25On June 11, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia announced that Creative Hospice Care, Inc., and affiliated companies paid $9.2 million to settle whistleblower allegations that the entities violated the False Claims Act by entering into kickback arrangements with medical directors in exchange for referrals of hospice patients to Creative Hospice.