NEW YORK CITY, Feb. 03, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Empassion Health, Inc., the nation’s largest network of at-home palliative and hospice care providers, today announced the launch of Empassion Assured, the industry’s first independent certification program for hospice providers. Built around the new Empassion Bill of Rights for Hospice Care, the program establishes a new benchmark for trust, transparency, and patient-centered care at the end of life.
With recent enforcement actions by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) highlighting systemic hospice fraud and improper billing practices, stakeholders across the health ecosystem are asking a fundamental question: How can a payer, primary care provider, home health agency, or specialist be confident they are referring a vulnerable patient to a trustworthy provider? The answer until now has been: they can’t — because oversight mechanisms have so far been limited to licensure, directories, and episodic surveys, leaving sizable gaps that fraudsters and bad actors can exploit.
Empassion Assured addresses this gap by going far beyond basic licensure and directory listings to independently evaluate and validate hospice providers that meet quality benchmarks and demonstrate ongoing excellence in care delivery, eligibility verification, compliance performance, and patient experience outcomes. Participating agencies will receive official Empassion Assured badging for use on websites, marketing materials, and payer-facing communications, helping to accelerate market trust and referrals.
“Empassion Assured sets a new standard for hospice trustworthiness,” said Robin Heffernan, co-founder and CEO of Empassion. “With hospice fraud rising and traditional safeguards proving insufficient, patients and payers deserve a reliable way to know whether a provider not only exists — but performs with dignity, ethics, and measurable quality.”
Why This Matters Now
Recent government investigation and enforcement efforts have revealed widespread vulnerabilities in the hospice benefit. CMS and DOJ officials have stepped up actions against fraudulent providers enrolling ineligible patients, submitting improper claims and/or billing for services not delivered — sometimes for years at a time. These dynamics not only drain taxpayer dollars but can deprive patients of necessary care during one of life’s most vulnerable moments. Additionally, high-quality providers struggle to differentiate themselves from bad actors.
Until now, there has been no independent, outcomes-driven certification that assures patients, families, clinicians, and payers that a hospice provider adheres to best practices and prioritizes quality and ethics. Empassion Assured fills that void. This certification is done at a local market level and providers are evaluated on a continuous basis as hospice quality is not a “set it and forget” proposition.
Built for the Future of Preferred and “Gold Card” Hospice Networks
This level of granular, continuously refreshed hospice evaluation is exactly what payers need to responsibly build preferred or so-called “Gold Card” hospice networks — networks that preserve patient choice while confidently weeding out bad actors and chronically underperforming providers.
Empassion Assured enables payers to:
- Identify high-performing hospice providers by local market;
- Support informed patient choice without steering;
- Reduce fraud, waste, and abuse exposure;
- And align hospice referrals with quality, compliance, and experience outcomes.
The Empassion Bill of Rights for Hospice Care
Empassion Assured-certified providers affirm that they uphold the following principles:
- Compliant and Comprehensive Eligibility Determination: Patients are enrolled only after verified clinical eligibility and with full informed consent, confirming that hospice is concordant with patient and family goals of care.
- Continuous Quality Monitoring: Providers undergo ongoing evaluation across clinical outcomes, operational performance, service delivery, compliance, and patient and caregiver experience — not episodic review.
- Transparent Reporting: Performance, outcomes, and compliance data are shared with stakeholders in a standardized, accessible format.
- Patient-Centered Care: Care is delivered with dignity, compassion, and responsiveness to evolving patient and family needs.
- Ethical Billing Practices: Strict adherence to Hospice Conditions of Participation, providing interdisciplinary care, and avoiding unnecessary services and exploitative billing practices.
- Post-Election Feedback: Patients and families are surveyed after hospice election and throughout the care journey to validate experience and quality in real time.
Providers that meet these standards will be designated as Empassion Assured-certified, demonstrating their commitment to exceptional, trustworthy hospice care. The program complements emerging industry frameworks such as Hospice Measures That Matter, and focuses on real-world performance validation.
Early Momentum and What’s Next
Empassion has begun onboarding hospice partners committed to meeting Empassion Assured standards. Certified providers may display official badging across websites, marketing materials, and payer-facing communications to drive patient, family, and referral-partner confidence.
“Empassion Assured isn’t just a certification — it’s a market signal,” said Alicia Bloom, COO of Empassion. “It allows providers who consistently do the right thing to stand out, while giving payers confidence that quality and integrity are being actively monitored.”
Looking ahead, Empassion is exploring ways to go beyond certification, including the potential publication of graded hospice performance tiers — bringing even greater transparency and accountability to a sector where trust matters most.
About Empassion
Empassion is on a mission to effectively and conveniently provide high-quality care for adults living with serious illness so that they can have more good days. Empassion operates in 45 states and partners with tens of thousands of community-based supportive care providers. Empassion serves multiple lines of business including Original Medicare, Medicare Advantage, and SNP populations. For more information about Empassion’s value-based programs, please visit https://empassion.com