The Second Half of 2026: What Home-Based Care Leaders Should Be Watchingby Jamie Daugherty, Executive Director As we move into the second half of 2026, home-based care leaders are facing a familiar challenge: staying focused on day-to-day operations while also preparing for major policy, payment, workforce, and advocacy developments. For Oregon’s home health, hospice, and in-home care providers, the next several months will matter. At the federal level, CMS activity remains front and center. The national six-month enrollment moratorium on new Medicare home health agency and hospice enrollments, announced May 13, continues to raise important questions about access, growth, ownership changes, and rural service availability. Hospice providers are also watching the FY 2027 hospice proposed rule, which includes payment updates, quality reporting changes, election statement addendum requirements, and requests for information related to community palliative care, a hospice-specific wage index, and medical aid-in-dying issues. Home health leaders should also be preparing for the next round of Medicare payment rulemaking. Recent home health rules have continued to focus on payment recalibration, behavior adjustments, quality reporting, value-based purchasing, and face-to-face requirements. Here in Oregon, SB 1575 will remain an important implementation issue. The new law changes hospice licensing requirements, restricts ownership by individuals with certain fraud or abuse histories, and requires OHA rulemaking within 24 months. Beyond formal rulemaking, the issues providers are facing are just as urgent: workforce shortages, referral pressure, administrative burden, survey readiness, payer complexity, and the growing need to explain the value of home-based care to policymakers. That is where OAHC’s role becomes especially important. The second half of 2026 will require continued advocacy, clear communication, and strong member engagement. We will need provider voices at the table as state and federal agencies make decisions that affect access to care, especially in rural and underserved communities. For agency leaders, now is the time to:
The first half of 2026 brought significant change. The second half will require focus, coordination, and a strong voice for home-based care. OAHC will continue to monitor these developments, share updates with members, and advocate for policies that protect access to high-quality care in the home. |