Literature Review

Andwell Health Partners CEO: Medicare Advantage becoming  ‘failed policy,’ jeopardizes home health accessHome Health Care News; by Morgan Gonzales; 7/21/25 The rise of Medicare Advantage (MA) has reshaped the home-based care landscape, but it’s putting home health providers in precarious positions while increasingly failing to deliver for beneficiaries. That’s according to the leader of Lewiston, Maine-based nonprofit provider Andwell Health Partners, which has significantly changed the way it cares for patients, including adjusting care plans, to adjust to increased penetration of MA. Andwell Health Partners’ CEO Ken Albert said MA is rapidly becoming a “failed policy,” on a recent episode of Home Health Care News’ Disrupt podcast. Formerly known as Androscoggin Home Healthcare + Hospice, Andwell Health Partners offers home health care, palliative care, hospice services and a slew of other services across Maine. Albert sat down with HHCN to discuss how the nonprofit will survive industry headwinds, the new service lines and innovations he has plotted for the organization, the future of Medicare Advantage and how nonprofit providers have to innovate to survive. 

How health care systems shape end-of-life care—A step toward transparencyJAMA Network Open; by Jacqueline M. Kruser, Gordon D. Rubenfeld; 7/25Our health care systems, in all their multifaceted complexities, are more influential in shaping the delivery of care than individual human effort or error. Influential system-level factors span many different domains: how we are paid, the buildings we work in, the technology around us, who and how many we have on the team caring for patients, our workload, and our local social networks of influence. One pragmatic first step in addressing the problem of invisible, inaccessible, and/or inflexible patterns of end-of-life care is to build awareness of and foster transparency about the current patterns and their default orientation. Building from this deeper understanding of how our everyday routines and practice patterns influence care, we can then take the bigger step of intentionally designing our routine clinical practice patterns to be systematic yet flexible in their support of patients with serious illnesses.

Simulating the overall hospital quality Star ratings with random measure weightsJAMA Network Open; by Benjamin D. Pollock, Daniel S. Ubl, Subashnie Devkaran, Sean C. Dowdy; 7/25We found that only 244 US hospitals achieved reliable excellence in hospital quality in 2024 when defined as 90th percentile performance or better in at least 50.0% of 100,000 simulations using random weights for each measure in the CMS Overall Star Ratings. Our analysis highlights that there is meaningful variation in hospital quality performance across the spectrum of quality measures, even among 5-star hospitals. Future efforts to assess this variation may allow for better identification of reliably excellent hospitals, which could in turn lead to solicitation of evidence regarding the processes or cultures that separate reliable excellence from inconsistent greatness in hospital quality.  

System wide goals of care implementation: A podcast with Ira Byock, Chris Dale, and Matt GonzalesGeriPal podcast; by Eric Widera, Alex Smith, Ira Byock, Chris Dale, Matt Gonzales; 7/24/25Most health care providers understand the importance of goals-of-care conversations in aligning treatment plans with patients’ goals, especially for those with serious medical problems. And yet, these discussions often either don’t happen or at least don’t get documented. How can we do better? In today’s podcast, we sit down with Ira Byock, Chris Dale, and Matthew Gonzales to discuss a multi-year healthcare system-wide goals of care implementation project within the Providence Health Care System. Spanning 51 hospitals, this initiative [found] an increase from 7% to 85% in goals of care conversation documentation for patients who were in an ICU for 5 or more days. How did they achieve this? Our guests will share insights into the project’s inception and the strategies that drove its success, including:

When grief involves trauma − a social worker explains how to support survivors of the recent floods and other devastating losses The Conversation; podcast by Gemma Ware with Dr. Liza Lane; 7/17/25 The July 4, 2025, floods in Kerr County, Texas, swept away children and entire families, leaving horror in their wake. Days later, flash floods struck Ruidoso, New Mexico, killing three people, including two young children. ... When death is sudden, violent, or when a body is never recovered, grief gets tangled up with trauma. In these situations, people don’t only grieve the death. They struggle with the terror of how it happened, the unanswered questions and the shock etched into their bodies. I’m a social work professor, grief researcher and the founder of The Young Widowhood Project, a research initiative aimed at expanding scholarship and public understanding of premature spousal loss. Both my personal loss and professional work have shown me how trauma changes the grieving process and what kind of support actually helps. To understand how trauma can complicate grief, it’s important to first understand how people typically respond to loss.

National Alliance for Care at Home hosts inaugural Financial Summit National Alliance for Care at Home, Alexandria, VA and Washington, DC; Press Release; 7/30/25 The National Alliance for Care at Home (the Alliance) successfully hosted its inaugural event, the 2025 Alliance Financial Summit, July 27-29 in Chicago, IL. The Summit brought together financial leaders from across the care at home community, with expert-led sessions, peer collaboration, and insights into market shifts and emerging technologies. More than 700 attendees and exhibitors participated in the comprehensive program, which featured keynote presentations, concurrent educational sessions, networking opportunities, awards, and celebration. ... “This first Alliance event exceeded our expectations, bringing together care at home leaders from across the nation to connect, learn, and recommit to our shared vision of an America where everyone has access to the highest quality, person-centered healthcare wherever they call home,” said Alliance CEO Dr. Steve Landers.

Filling the gaps with the loss of Wilshire Health and Community Services NBC KSBY-6, California's Central Coast; by Dylan Foreman; 7/22/25 At the end of June, the longtime medical service provider Wilshire Health and Community Services, which offered everything from hospice and home health care to community services like counseling and transportation, closed its doors, leaving clients looking for help elsewhere. ... [Services] like home health and hospice care are being transferred over to organizations like Dignity Health Home Health and Hospice Care, getting 50% of the patients from Wilshire and sending offers out to 30% of their staff. According to Wilshire, on any given day, they could have at least 250 clients.

Homewatch CareGivers president on moving into clinical care, building partnerships of the future Home Health Care News; by Joyce Famakinwal 7/16/25 ... Denver-based Homewatch CareGivers operates in over 30 states and has 234 locations. The personal care franchise employs over 4,500 caregivers. The company’s goal to continue “filling the white space” has resulted in 20 new franchisees since 2023. Plus, Homewatch CareGivers is expanding into the clinical care space with the launch of a nursing services vertical, and through its partnerships with health systems and hospitals. Home Health Care News recently caught up with Homewatch CareGivers President Todd Houghton. During the conversation, he explained why hospitals benefit from home care partnerships, how Homewatch CareGivers is building out its clinical capabilities and how the company is utilizing AI tools.

Trump administration hands over Medicaid recipients’ personal data, including addresses, to ICE Associated Press (AP), Washington, DC; by Kimberly Kindy and Amanda Seitz; updated 7/17/25 Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials will be given access to the personal data of the nation’s 79 million Medicaid enrollees, including home addresses and ethnicities, to track down immigrants who may not be living legally in the United States, according to an agreement obtained by The Associated Press. The information will give ICE officials the ability to find “the location of aliens” across the country, says the agreement signed Monday [7/14] between the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Department of Homeland Security. ... Such disclosures, even if not acted upon, could cause widespread alarm among people seeking emergency medical help for themselves or their children. ... The database will reveal to ICE officials the names, addresses, birth dates, ethnic and racial information, as well as Social Security numbers for all people enrolled in Medicaid. The state and federally funded program provides health care coverage program for the poorest of people, including millions of children. ... [Federal] law requires all states to offer emergency Medicaid, a temporary coverage that pays only for lifesaving services in emergency rooms to anyone, including non-U.S. citizens. Emergency Medicaid is often used by immigrants, including those who are lawfully present and those who are not.

Palliative video consultation and symptom distress among rural inpatients-A randomized clinical trialCritical Care Medicine; by Marie A. Bakitas, Shena Gazaway, Felicia Underwood, Christiana Ekelem, Vantrice T. Heard,  Richard Kennedy, Andres Azuero, Rodney Tucker, Susan McCammon, Joshua M. Hauser, Lucas McElwain, Ronit Elk; 7/25The triple threat of rural geography, racial inequities, and older age has hindered access to high-quality palliative care for many people in the US. Only 70% of the deep South vs 85% to 94% of the rest of the US has palliative care despite the deep South having the greatest needs due to suboptimal health care access and elevated morbidity and mortality. In this RCT [randomized clinical trial] among Black or African American and White chronically ill hospitalized adults, culturally based specialist palliative care video consultation was not associated with statistically significant reduced symptom distress compared with usual care, but there was a clinically meaningful difference ... between groups. Contrary to our hypotheses, intervention participants’ QOL [quality of life] and resource use (secondary outcomes) also were not improved.Assistant Editor's note: This study reminds us that palliative care delivered virtually, as opposed to in-person, may not be of benefit to some individuals. It also reminds us that palliative care, in its finest form, usually works best when delivered on an ongoing basis by a known, trusted professional(s). 

Hochul weighs political risk of aid-in-dying bill Fingerlakes1.com, Seneca Falls, NY; by Staff Report; 7/18/25 Gov. Kathy Hochul is under pressure as she considers signing New York’s Medical Aid in Dying Act, a controversial bill allowing terminally ill patients access to life-ending medication, according to Politico. The bill has strong support from advocates and many voters, but faces fierce opposition from religious groups and conservatives. Hochul, a practicing Catholic eyeing reelection, must balance public opinion, personal beliefs, and political risk.

CHP Home Care & Hospice celebrating 50 years of service The Van Wert Independent, Van Wert, OH; by Greg Yinger; 7/20/25 CHP Home Care & Hospice is celebrating a half century of providing home-based health care services in northwest and west central Ohio. The non-profit, 501c3 organization was incorporated in December of 1974 and served its first patient on March 1, 1975. Dr. E. E. White, a local physician, initiated the establishment of a home health care service because Van Wert County was one of five Ohio counties at the time that lacked these services. Dr. White hired Donna Grimm, a registered nurse, and with the help of a $3,000 grant from the United Way of Van Wert County, Van Wert Area Visiting Nurses Association – later changed to Community Health Professionals (CHP) – was established.