This marks the sixth year in a row for the in-home care franchise

BURKBURNETT, Texas—HomeWell Franchising LLC, the franchisor of national non-medical in-home care providerHomeWell Care Services, has been ranked on the 2026 Inc. 5000 list for the sixth consecutive year. HomeWell ranked No. 2,403, climbing more than 1,000 spots from its 2025 ranking and 2,081 spots since its inaugural appearance on the list in 2021.

The Standing Up for Home Care Workers initiative aims to ensure homecare agencies & third-party employers comply with Pennsylvania law

PHILADELPHIA—Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry (L&I) Secretary Nancy A. Walker announced the launch of Standing Up for Home Care Workers, a labor law enforcement initiative Walker said is designed to protect homecare workers’ wages and ensure homecare agencies and other third-party employers comply with Pennsylvania law.

The partnership combines WelcomeHome's customer relationship management with WellSky's personal care solution

OVERLAND PARK, Kansas—WellSky, a health and community care technology and services company, has partnered with WelcomeHome Software, a customer relationship management (CRM) solution built for personal care agencies. The partnership connects WelcomeHome’s sales and marketing CRM with the WellSky Personal Care solution, giving agencies clearer visibility across prospect engagement, client intake, scheduling and operations while reducing manual work and duplicate data entry.

The DME companies allegedly billed Medicare for deceased beneficiaries

WASHINGTON—Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced it has identified and is barring 11 medical supply companies with more than $3.4 billion in suspected fraudulent billing practices in 2025 and 2026 from receiving future Medicare Advantage (MA) Part C and Part D payments. 

These 11 durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics and supplies (DMEPOS) suppliers allegedly:

The information was released in a California WARN Report

El Segundo, CALIFORNIA—24 Hour Home Care plans to permanently lay off 738 employees effective Sept. 15, according to a California state employment filing. 

The home health company filed the plans through a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) report, which California employers must do within a 30-day period if there are any layoffs that impact 50 or more workers. 

Consumer Cellular it is expanding its recently launched SpeakEasy brand with a new connected-care experience the company said is designed to help adults age 75 & older maintain their independence

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona—Consumer Cellular announced SpeakEasy Connect Care+, expanding its recently launched SpeakEasy brand with a new connected-care experience the company said is designed to help adults age 75 and older maintain their independence while giving families visibility built on what the customer chooses to share.

The expansion includes the addition of scheduling & time & attendance capabilities

BERKLEY HEIGHTS, New Jersey—Viventium announced an expansion of its human capital management (HCM) platform through the addition of integrated scheduling and time and attendance capabilities. The offering extends the connected Viventium + Apploi workforce experience, providing healthcare organizations with workforce visibility while reducing the complexity of managing employees across multiple systems.

It was also found that misunderstandings were linked to preferences for hospital or nursing homes

STOCKHOLM, Sweden—A study published by Sage Journals found that a majority of adults wish to receive end-of-life care at home, as well as to die at home rather than in a hospital or senior services home. Sage Journals is an online platform that hosts peer-reviewed journals published by SAGE Publishing.

Porter Cares is a healthcare technology & services company that coordinates patient care & health insurance benefits

BALTIMORE & FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida—Porter Cares, Inc., a healthcare technology and services company that coordinates patient care and health insurance benefits, announced that Jeff Fox has joined the company as chief growth officer.

A letter penned by 19 home health, hospice & suppliers asked the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to rethink some of the proposed updates to the Home Health Proposed Rule

WASHINGTON—In a joint sign-on letter led by LeadingAge, a coalition of 19 partners representing hospitals, physician and clinician practices, post-acute and long-term care providers, home health and hospice agencies and suppliers warned the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) that changes to Medicare provider enrollment provisions included in the proposed payment rule for home health risk penalizing legitimate providers and could result in limiting beneficiary access to care.&n

The report said mergers & acquisitions could return to or surpass pre-pandemic numbers if momentum from first half of 2026 continues

WASHINGTON—A new report predicts there could be a spike in the volume and valuation of homecare mergers and acquisitions (M&A) for 2027.

The report, "Insight into Health Care Services Mergers & Acquisitions," released by the Braff Group, said that M&A transactions have been rising and could return to or even surpass pre-pandemic numbers if the pattern from the first half of 2026 continues.

The organizations said they are looking to modernize how physicians & clinicians manage care through electronic medical record management

REDWOOD CITY, California—WellBeam, a healthcare technology company focused on improving longitudinal care management through electronic medical record (EMR) and clinical workflow interoperability, announced a partnership with Kettering Health, a regional integrated health system, and Alternate Solutions Health Network (ASHN), a provider of home health services. 

Through its acquisition of Mid-Island Medical Supply, Medically Modern has been able to expand Medicare coverage through major active payer contracts

NEW YORK—Medically Modern, a nationwide provider of continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), insulin pumps and related diabetes supplies, announced that its acquisition of Mid-Island Medical Supply has expanded the company's insurance coverage from Medicare only to nearly every major commercial and public payer.

The National Alliance for Care at Home said the updates to the rule do not balance years of cuts

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia—While next year's planned home health Medicare rates do include a welcome full annual payment update, the overall proposed rule doesn't do enough to undo prior harm or protect access to care across the country, the National Alliance for Care at Home said in public comments on the rule. 

Daybreak will now have access to the e-prescribing platform's clinicians, prescribers & HME provider locations in the hopes of streamlining the diagnosis & treatment processes of obstructive sleep apnea

LOS ANGELES—Daybreak, a sleep apnea solutions company, has joined Parachute Health, an e-prescribing platform for home medical equipment (HME). Daybreak said this marks its first entry into e-prescribing and makes it available to the more than 300,000 clinicians and prescribers and 3,000 HME provider locations nationwide who use Parachute Health.