South Carolina Home Care & Hospice Association

02/27/2026

The home care workforce is shrinking in 2026.

What started as +4% growth in early January has turned into week-over-week contraction by mid-February.

For agencies, this means:
📉 Harder-to-staff cases
📈 Higher recruiting costs
⏳ Longer time-to-fill
🔥 Increased overtime and burnout

The question isn’t whether staffing pressure is coming — it’s how prepared your recruiting pipeline is.

Join CareConnect for a live webinar breaking down:
- What the new labor data means
- How to stabilize hiring before shortages hit revenue
- How agencies are cutting time-to-fill by up to 50%

Register here → https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_8Fudze-UQdKKDxpi5S2Q0w #/registration

02/27/2026

💻🏡 Virtual-First Care is Transforming Rural Health
Experts say moving beyond hospital-centric models and investing in virtual-first primary and specialty care could help keep rural patients healthier right at home — especially when paired with Rural Health Transformation funding. 💡🌾 By bringing care to patients instead of the other way around, telehealth can improve access and outcomes for communities that struggle with distance and limited local services.
🔗 https://www.mobihealthnews.com/video/virtual-first-care-can-keep-rural-patients-healthier-home

👩‍⚕️📱

Ovatient CEO Michael Dalton recommends that states use Rural Health Transformation Program money to move beyond hospital-centric care models and supplement local health services with virtual-first primary and specialty care.

02/25/2026

A recent feature in HomeCare Magazine explores Before I Forget by Tory Henwood Hoen — a novel that sheds light on Alzheimer’s caregiving from a younger caregiver’s perspective.

For providers and professionals, it’s a thoughtful reminder of the emotional, financial, and relational realities families navigate every day.

Tory Henwood Hoen's novel, "Before I Forget," explores the challenges of young caregivers facing Alzheimer's.

02/24/2026

What an incredible day at South Carolina Home Care & Hospice Advocacy Day!
Thank you to everyone who showed up, spoke up, and stood up for home care and hospice. Your dedication to protecting patients, supporting caregivers, and strengthening care at home across South Carolina truly makes an impact. We are stronger together!

02/24/2026

We appreciate Governor Henry McMaster for meeting with our advocacy team today to discuss the critical issues impacting home care and hospice providers across our state.

Strong leadership and open dialogue are essential as we work to protect access to quality care at home for seniors and families who depend on it. Thank you for your time and commitment to the future of care at home.

02/24/2026

The recent Post and Courier article on changes to the Community Choices Medicaid waiver raises serious questions for healthcare providers. https://www.postandcourier.com/charleston_sc/medicaid-waiver-elderly-health-care-community-choices-sc/article_e253b821-6394-444e-8196-f61f6f130e9b.html

While expanding access to home- and community-based services is a positive goal, the article highlights ongoing concerns around reimbursement rates, workforce shortages, administrative burden, and provider sustainability. Expanding eligibility without addressing payment adequacy and staffing realities could unintentionally strain an already fragile care-at-home infrastructure.

02/20/2026

❤️ February is American Heart Month ❤️
For home care, home health, and hospice providers, heart health is at the core of what you do every day.

Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the U.S., making education, early intervention, and coordinated care more important than ever. Whether it’s monitoring blood pressure at home, supporting medication adherence, encouraging heart-healthy habits, or providing compassionate end-of-life care for cardiac patients, your work makes a life-saving difference.

During American Heart Month, take time to:
🩺 Educate patients and families about heart disease prevention
🥗 Promote heart-healthy nutrition and physical activity
💊 Reinforce medication management and follow-up care
🤝 Collaborate across the care continuum to improve outcomes

Care at home plays a critical role in reducing hospitalizations, improving quality of life, and supporting patients where they’re most comfortable.

02/19/2026

💛 Caring for a loved one with dementia isn’t just emotionally challenging — it can also involve tough, life-affecting decisions.

Many families reach a turning point when behaviors like wandering or “elopement” — when someone with memory loss suddenly leaves a familiar place and can’t find their way back — happen more frequently. These moments highlight just how much risk and anxiety caregivers carry every day.

The fear of a loved one getting lost can push families to consider memory care options that offer trained staff and secure environments, not just a place to live but specialized support designed for people whose memory loss is progressing.

Read more: https://ow.ly/Ix6u50YhJ64

Wandering, and "elopement," are frightening and dangerous behaviors by people with dementia. For some families, it is the point when they begin to seek institutional care for their loved one.

02/17/2026

The new Rural Health Transformation Program — part of major federal investment — is sending $50 billion over five years to strengthen health care in rural communities, with funds going to all 50 states to expand services, build workforces, improve access, and support innovative care models.

This is a major step toward better care for rural residents — from telehealth to better workforce support — but the work to close gaps in rural health access continues. 💪🏥

👉 https://ow.ly/QYth50YgF8p

AARP highlighted the importance of caregiving, telehealth

02/16/2026

📢 Advance Care Plans Can Help—but There’s More to the Story

A new piece from Hospice News highlights how advance care planning — a tool that helps people document their end-of-life wishes — is linked to greater hospice use and more care that aligns with patient preferences. That’s a win for patient-centered care. 💛📄

But it’s not without challenges. The article also points out that advance directives can be misinterpreted or applied in ways that don’t fully match someone’s goals, and that more work is needed to ensure these plans are clear, updated, and truly reflect what patients want. ⚖️

Advance care planning is valuable, but it’s only part of the journey toward better end-of-life care — and we need to talk more about how to do it right. 💬💡

🔗 https://ow.ly/ejAe50YgEBt

Advance care planning is a necessary service, particularly for older adults with life-limiting illnesses. However, even this comes with risks. Only about

02/11/2026

📌 Why thoughtful clinical communication is essential in serious illness care:
In Careful Clinical Communication: Panel Unpacks Impact of Conversations Surrounding Serious Illnesses, experts from oncology and palliative care highlight how proactive, aligned conversations with patients and families can improve understanding, reduce distress, and foster trust throughout the care continuum.
https://www.cancernursingtoday.com/post/careful-clinical-communication-panel-unpacks-impact-of-conversations-surrounding-serious-illnesses

Key takeaways include the value of early, multidisciplinary communication, shared responsibility among care teams, and strategies to navigate emotionally complex discussions with sensitivity. Strengthening these skills — especially among nurses and allied clinicians — makes a measurable difference in patient experience and outcomes.

The second part of this roundtable series covers expert perspectives on proactively initiating difficult conversations with patients and the importance of establishing trust.

02/10/2026

📌 Behavioral health integration isn’t optional — it’s foundational.
At a recent fireside discussion with health and policy leaders at the National Press Club, experts stressed that mental health and addiction support must be integrated into care at every stage rather than added on later. Addressing behavioral and physical health together supports whole-person care, improves outcomes, and better supports patients and families throughout serious illness.
https://ehospice.com/usa_posts/why-behavioral-health-integration-is-essential-at-every-stage-of-care/

Earlier this week, Tom Koutsoumpas, Founder and CEO of National Partnership for Healthcare and Hospice Innovation (NPHI), participated in a fireside conversatio