Annual honors recognize home-based care organizations and professionals advancing quality, performance, innovation, and workforce development

DALLAS, Sept. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Homecare Homebase^SM (HCHB) today announced the winners of its 2026 Customer Awards and the recipients of its Home Care Aide Scholarships. The annual programs recognize organizations and individuals demonstrating excellence across clinical quality, operational performance, industry leadership, innovation, and professional development.

This year’s honorees reflect the breadth of work underway across home-based care to strengthen patient outcomes, improve performance, and support the professionals who deliver care in homes and communities nationwide.

“The organizations and individuals recognized this year are demonstrating what meaningful progress in home-based care looks like,” said President of Homecare Homebase, Luke Rutledge. “From improving quality and operational performance to advocating for the industry, and investing in the next generation of caregivers, their work is helping move care at home forward. We’re proud to recognize their achievements and the impact they have on patients, families, and communities.”

The HCHB Customer Awards recognize agencies and individuals who are leading the way in patient care and performance improvement. Together, these honorees represent the compassion, ingenuity, and commitment moving home-based care forward.

Industry Advocate Award
The Industry Advocate Award highlights individual contributions in patient care, performance, innovation, or regulatory affairs. It recognizes leaders whose advocacy advances quality and efficiency while elevating patient experiences across communities. This year’s winner is:

• C. Todd Robbins — Covenant Health Homecare and Hospice

Innovation & Achievement Award
The Innovation & Achievement Award recognizes organizations that have developed innovative solutions to address challenges within the home care market, highlighting forward-thinking approaches to technology and process improvements that enhance outcomes and streamline care delivery. This year’s winner is:

• THEMA Health Services

Quality Award – Home Health
The Quality Award – Home Health recognizes agencies that achieve a 5-star rating in the CMS Quality of Patient Care metrics. These organizations consistently deliver top-tier clinical outcomes and patient-centered care, setting the standard for performance across the field. This year’s home health winners include:

• VNS Health
• Americare CSS
• Reliant at Home
• Texas Healthcare Solutions
• Lifecare Health Services
• Acacia Health

Quality Award – Hospice
The Quality Award – Hospice honors agencies that achieve a 100 in the Hospice Quality Reporting Program (HQRP), reflecting exceptional quality metrics and compassionate, individualized care that honors patient dignity and comfort. This year’s hospice winners include:

• Agape Care Group
• Affinity Hospice Management
• Interim HealthCare of the Upstate and Midlands
• Stillwater Hospice
• Presbyterian Homes
• Community Nursing Services
• Harmony Hospice Care
• Healing Hands Healthcare
• Lifecare Health Services

KPI Excellence Award – Home Health
The KPI Excellence Award – Home Health honors agencies excelling in acute care hospitalizations, highlighting strong care coordination and proactive approaches that reduce avoidable hospitalizations and improve outcomes. This year’s home health winners include:

• Optum Home & Community Care Delivery
• Vivie
• The New Jewish Home – Home Care

KPI Excellence Award – Hospice
The KPI Excellence Award – Hospice recognizes agencies based on hospice visits in the last days of life (HVLDL), which concentrates on visits provided in the last three vulnerable days of life for a patient. These agencies’ results reflect a deep dedication to ensuring patients and families receive attentive, compassionate support when it matters most. This year’s hospice winners are:

• Optum Home & Community Care Delivery
• Aveanna Healthcare
• Presbyterian Homes

Home Care Aide Scholarship Program
The Home Care Aide Scholarship Program recognizes the compassion, dedication, and professionalism of caregivers who form the foundation of home-based care. This initiative empowers home care aides in their professional advancement by providing scholarship opportunities that foster growth, education, and continued excellence in the field.

The 2026 Home Care Aide Scholarship recipients are:

• Katrina Peck — Bethany Hospice
• Leslie Bohanon — Compassus Hospice
• Xian Vance — Compassus Hospice

Each recipient will receive a $2,000 scholarship in recognition of their commitment to compassionate care and continued professional development.

“Recognizing excellence is also about recognizing the people behind the progress,” Rutledge said. “We congratulate each of this year’s Customer Award winners and scholarship recipients and thank them for the work they do every day to strengthen home-based care.”

To learn more about Homecare Homebase’s award programs, please visit hchb.com/hchb-awards.

About Homecare Homebase, LLC
Homecare Homebase is a Dallas-based software leader offering hosted, cloud-based solutions to streamline operations and optimize compliance, clinical, and financial workflows for home-based care agencies. Our customized mobile solutions enable real-time, wireless data exchange and communication between field clinicians, physicians and office staff for better care, more accurate reporting, and improved revenue cycle management. Founded by industry veterans in 1999, HCHB empowers over 430,000 users to service more than one million patients daily, resulting in over 120 million visits per year. The company is part of the Hearst Health network. For more information, visit hchb.com or call us toll-free at 1-866-535-HCHB (4242).

About Hearst Health
The mission of Hearst Health is to guide healthcare organizations by delivering essential intelligence and software that improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of care. Hearst Health has been innovating with care for more than 40 years, with a commitment to making a lasting positive impact on health. The Hearst Health companies — FDB, Homecare Homebase, MCG, MHK, QGenda and Zynx Health — elevate care by informing and empowering participants across the health journey. To learn more, visit www.hearst.com/hearst-health and follow @Hearst Health on LinkedIn.

About Affinity Hospice Management
Affinity and its affiliates are community-based hospice providers dedicated to delivering compassionate, patient-centered end-of-life care. Our interdisciplinary teams provide comprehensive physical, emotional, psychosocial, and spiritual support to patients and their families, with a commitment to quality, dignity, and individualized care.

About Agape Care Group
A premier provider of hospice and palliative care, Agape Care Group proudly serves more than 7,500 patients daily through its family of brands — Agape Care South Carolina, ACG Hospice in Alabama, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Virginia, and Texas; Georgia Hospice Care; and Hospice of the Carolina Foothills in North Carolina. A USA Today Top Workplace, the company’s 3,000+ employees are committed to serving with love those touched by an advanced illness and providing comfort and support through compassionate care and meaningful experiences. Agape Care Group offers hospice and palliative services across multiple settings and is renowned for its superior patient-family experience and expertly trained professionals.

About Aveanna Healthcare
Aveanna Healthcare is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and has locations in 39 states providing a broad range of pediatric and adult healthcare services, primarily focused on care in the home, including nursing, hospice, rehabilitation, occupational nursing in schools, therapy, and day treatment center services for medically complex and chronically ill children and adults, as well as delivery of enteral nutrition and other products to patients. In addition, the Company provides respite healthcare services, which are temporary care provider services provided in relief of the patient’s normal caregiver. The Company’s services are designed to provide a high quality, lower cost alternative to prolonged hospitalization.

About Community Nursing Services
For nearly 100 years Community Nursing Services (CNS), has expanded services and coverage areas to meet the needs of Utahns statewide. As Utah’s oldest nonprofit home health care agency, CNS is committed to providing care regardless of insurance coverage or ability to pay. We bring healing and comfort home through expert, compassionate, and personalized care.

About Healing Hands Healthcare
Healing Hands Healthcare is a locally owned and operated home health and hospice provider, proudly serving 22 counties across Texas. As a Healthcare Ministry, we are passionate about making a meaningful difference in the lives of those we serve. We believe the heart of healthcare is compassionate service, and we are committed to delivering exceptional, high-quality home health and hospice care with dignity, respect, and excellence. Our dedicated team focuses on meeting the unique needs of every patient and family, providing personalized care that promotes comfort, healing, and quality of life in the place they call home.

About Interim HealthCare of the Upstate and Midlands
Interim HealthCare of the Upstate and Midlands is a locally rooted, nationally supported provider of Home Health, Hospice, and Personal Care services across South Carolina. Since 1979, the agency has delivered high-quality, in-home healthcare guided by its mission of honoring God through the enrichment of human life. Offering a full continuum of care, Interim HealthCare supports patients and families through changing needs, from skilled Home Health services and daily Personal Care support to compassionate Hospice care. The agency has been recognized for meeting top industry benchmarks in quality, patient experience, and caregiver support, while remaining deeply connected to the communities it serves.

About Optage Hospice (Presbyterian Homes)
Optage Hospice is a nonprofit hospice provider serving Minnesota and Wisconsin and is part of Presbyterian Homes & Services (PHS), one of the nation’s largest nonprofit providers of senior living and care services. Rooted in a faith-based mission, Optage Hospice delivers person-centered end-of-life care focused on comfort, dignity and quality of life. By addressing physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs, Optage helps individuals remain in the place they call home while receiving compassionate support tailored to their goals and values. Through expert symptom management, caregiver education and grief support, Optage partners with individuals and families to provide meaningful care throughout the end-of-life journey.

About Optum Home and Community Care Delivery
Optum is a leading health services and innovation company dedicated to helping make the health system work better for everyone. By combining clinical expertise, technology and data, Optum delivers care that is simpler, more effective and more affordable. As part of UnitedHealth Group, Optum serves consumers, care providers, employers, health plans and government agencies through its Optum Health, Optum Insight and Optum Rx businesses.

About Stillwater Hospice
Stillwater Hospice is a 138-year-old nonprofit, community-based organization serving northeast Indiana with compassionate care and support for individuals facing serious illness, end-of-life challenges, and grief. Guided by its mission to provide compassion, comfort, and guidance through life’s journey, Stillwater offers hospice care, palliative care, inpatient care at its 14-bed Hospice Home, adult grief counseling and support groups through its Peggy F. Murphy Community Grief Center, caregiver support, advance care planning, veteran recognition programs, volunteer services, and community education. Care is provided wherever patients call home, helping individuals and families navigate some of life’s most difficult moments with dignity, comfort, and expert support.

About The New Jewish Home – Home Care
The New Jewish Home CHHA provides premium clinical care to residents in Manhattan. Our dedicated team of clinicians-registered nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and medical social workers ensure seamless transitions from in-patient discharge to home recovery. We specialize in post hospital care, post-surgical care, chronic disease management and wound care, ensuring safety and independence for Manhattan families. Learn more at jewishhome.org

About Vivie
Rooted in faith and guided by compassion, we serve people throughout Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin with warmth, respect, and a commitment to excellence. Whether it’s skilled home health care, vibrant senior living, or meaningful hospice support, we surround the people we serve with whatever kind of care they need—wherever they call home.

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SOURCE Homecare Homebase