What changed for caregivers this week — October 26, 2026
Six medical professionals arrested in a $138 million hospice fraud scheme, HHS moves to strengthen home-based dementia care services, CMS defers $1.2 billion in California Medicaid home care payments amid a fraud crackdown, and a new study shows that palliative care alongside active cancer treatment cuts hospitalizations — a week where federal enforcement and federal investment moved in opposite directions, and both will eventually reach families at home.
Six people have been arrested in a $138 million hospice fraud scheme — and families should understand what this kind of fraud actually does to patients
Six medical professionals were arrested this week in connection with an alleged $138 million Medicare fraud scheme spanning three separate hospice organizations, according to Hospice News. The suspects are accused of submitting false Medicare billing for hospice services — enrolling patients who did not meet the eligibility criteria for the hospice benefit, billing for care that was not delivered, and in some cases falsifying physician certifications of terminal prognosis.
The hospice Medicare benefit requires that a physician certify a patient as having a terminal illness with a prognosis of six months or less if the disease runs its normal course. A hospice that enrolls patients who do not meet that standard is not organizing its care around genuine end-of-life needs — it is billing Medicare for a benefit the patient does not qualify for, which means the clinical model, the staffing, and the attention to comfort and symptom management may all be misaligned with what the patient actually needs. For families currently using a hospice or evaluating one, the question worth asking is concrete: who certified the terminal prognosis, when was it last reviewed, and what does the care plan specifically address in terms of comfort goals? A hospice that cannot answer those questions clearly is worth scrutinizing. Medicare Care Compare at medicare.gov allows families to search for any Medicare-certified hospice by location and review its quality data and inspection history before or after enrollment.
HHS has announced plans to strengthen home and community-based services for dementia care — and the gap it is trying to close is one families have been living with for years
As part of an updated federal plan to coordinate dementia care and research, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has announced it will work to improve access to home and community-based services specifically for people living with dementia, according to Home Health Care News. The initiative is framed around reducing the burden on family caregivers and keeping people with dementia at home longer by making professional support more consistently available.
The announcement reflects a real and documented problem: most people with Alzheimer's and other dementias live at home, cared for primarily by a family member, and the professional services that could support that arrangement — home health aides trained in dementia care, adult day programs, respite care — are inconsistently available, inconsistently covered, and inconsistently easy to find. Federal announcements of this kind tend to move slowly from policy to practice, and families who need support now cannot wait for a federal initiative to reach their zip code. The most direct path to home and community-based services for a person with dementia is through a local Area Agency on Aging, which can assess eligibility for state-funded programs that exist independently of whatever HHS is building. The Eldercare Locator at eldercare.acl.gov connects families to their local agency by zip code. The Alzheimer's Association's 24-hour helpline at 800-272-3900 can also help families identify what is available in their specific area, including respite programs that are often underused because families do not know they exist.
CMS has deferred another $1.2 billion in California Medicaid payments for home care — and families receiving those services should know what a payment deferral actually means on the ground
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced this week that it is deferring an additional $1.2 billion in Medicaid payments to California directed toward personal home care services, according to Home Health Care News. The deferral follows earlier federal scrutiny of California's In-Home Supportive Services program, which pays for personal care — bathing, dressing, meal preparation, mobility assistance — for low-income older adults and people with disabilities. CMS has raised concerns about fraud and billing irregularities within the program.
A payment deferral at this scale does not immediately stop services for individual recipients, but it creates financial pressure on the state and on the providers and workers who depend on timely reimbursement. California's IHSS program serves roughly 650,000 people, many of whom have no other realistic option for staying at home. For a family in California whose parent or adult child receives IHSS services, the immediate practical step is to stay in contact with the assigned social worker and to document the services currently authorized — the number of hours, the tasks covered, and the name of the provider or family member delivering care. If services are disrupted or reduced, the appeals process through the county IHSS office is the formal mechanism for contesting a change. Families who are not yet enrolled in IHSS but who have a family member who might qualify can apply through their county social services department; eligibility is based on functional need and income, not age alone.
A new study on Daymark Health's palliative care model shows fewer hospitalizations for cancer patients receiving active treatment — and families managing a cancer diagnosis at home should know this option exists
A study published this week found that Daymark Health's in-home and virtual supportive oncology care program was associated with meaningfully fewer hospital admissions and lower overall healthcare spending among patients undergoing active cancer treatment, according to Hospice News. The model pairs palliative care — focused on symptom management, pain control, and quality of life — with ongoing cancer treatment, rather than positioning palliative care as something that begins only when treatment ends.
This distinction matters because palliative care is still widely misunderstood as synonymous with hospice, or with giving up on treatment. It is neither. Palliative care can begin at diagnosis and continue alongside chemotherapy, radiation, or any other active treatment. For a family managing a parent or spouse through cancer treatment at home — dealing with nausea, fatigue, pain, and the logistical weight of frequent appointments — a palliative care team focused specifically on those symptoms can reduce the crises that end in emergency room visits. Daymark Health operates in specific markets, but palliative care programs that work alongside active oncology treatment are available more broadly. The Center to Advance Palliative Care at capc.org maintains a searchable directory of palliative care programs by location, and a patient's oncologist or primary care physician can make a referral — though, as with fall risk assessments, families often have to ask for it rather than wait for it to be offered.
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