Some rebranded organizations that have recently removed “hospice” from their company name are seeing increased awareness, utilization and other positive results.
A rebrand can sometimes better position a hospice in terms of improved awareness, according to Tony Kudner, chief strategy officer of Transcend Strategy Group. Formerly RP Marketing, the Ohio-headquartered consulting firm works with hospice and home-based care organizations. The company rebranded in 2020 after 27 years of operation.
Healthcare providers, patients and families have common misconceptions about what is and is not included in hospice care delivery, Kudner said. These misunderstandings drive many organizations toward change. However, a successful hospice rebrand takes careful consideration around the potential benefits and unintended consequences, he indicated.
“When planned correctly, we have seen huge client success in terms of growth in access and utilization,” Kudner told Hospice News. “Moving towards a name, brand story, lexicon and visual identity that better encapsulates what an agency truly does is something that helps align their differentiated position with what the market wants. We’ve had clients who have seen increases of 50% [average daily census (ADC)] in the 18-36 months following a rebrand. That takes investments of time, personnel and capital to do, but it’s completely achievable with the right strategy.”
Rebranding trends
Many community-based organizations have been serving patients since the establishment of the Medicare Hospice Benefit in 1983. Some hospices have rebranded as their scope of services and geographic reach expanded, while others updated around evolving patient needs.
Nearly 2,000 healthcare companies across the country have undergone a rebranding in the past five years, according to Jenn Lagemann, founder of NextJenn Copy. She serves as a fractional chief marketing officer for the company, which assists healthcare providers and health tech companies.
Roughly 124 hospices have rebranded nationwide from 2020 to 2025, according to a recent NextJenn Copy report. Rebranding is not a traditional activity in the hospice space, but more organizations may be leaning into the trend for varied reasons, Lagemann indicated.
The report found three common triggers that prompted a rebrand:
— Service diversification or repositioning services beyond hospice care
— New market entry or expanded geographic service reach
— Modernization or updated branding and marketing campaigns
Trends in service diversification serve as a main propellant in hospices’ rebranding decisions, Lagemann said. Hospices are seeking to highlight their expanded offerings in palliative, personal or adult day care, while others have launched dementia, doula or advance care planning services.
“The biggest driver [for rebrands], hands down, is expanding service lines beyond traditional hospice care,” Lagemann told Hospice News in an email. “Beyond language, a lot of rebrands reflect an expanding definition of who the patient even is. Organizations that built their identity around hospice found out the hard way that the name itself became a trap. As they grew into palliative care, home health, serious illness navigation, advance care planning and bereavement services for the broader community, the word ‘hospice’ stopped fitting what they actually did.”
Weighing the pros and cons
Established roughly 45 years ago, Hospice of the Western Reserve in Ohio rebranded as Reserve Care in February. The organization provides hospice to adult and pediatric patients, palliative care, grief and caregiver support, veteran services and specialized care for patients with HIV/AIDS, COPD and progressive memory impairment conditions.
Today, Reserve Care’s palliative care program serves 800-900 patients daily. The nonprofit’s geographic service region spans 18 counties in Ohio, increasing from previously serving six counties in the state’s western region.
“Our scope has changed where we are location-wise,” Elizabeth McIntyre, chief marketing and communications officer at Reserve Care, told Hospice News. “We moved beyond the geography of that Western Reserve. You now see a continuation of where we started, along with that expansion of services of what we’re providing and where, mostly in people’s homes. We wanted something that was unique to us, but also spoke to our legacy and our history.”
The recent rebranding is having positive impacts on patient referrals and care coordination, according to Reserve Care President and CEO Bill Finn. The rebrand has affected timely access to home-based services in particular, he said.
Roughly 72% of the nonprofit’s palliative care patients transition to hospice. These patients often have longer hospice lengths of stay compared to individuals from other referrals, Finn said.
Hospices that choose to rebrand need to anticipate unique challenges compared to other industries, he stated. Some competitors may see an opportunity to paint an organization in a negative light due to the change, using program integrity issues as leverage, Finn indicated.
“We’ve created a larger front door for people to get the right care at the right place and the right time,” Flinn told Hospice News. “It takes away the stigma of hospice and allows for coordination and ultimately keeping the patients’ goals of care centered in front. But anytime there’s a change in a highly competitive market, we have to be sensitive to what our competitors are going to try and do. We’ve had unscrupulous competitors use the name changes as a vehicle for their self-gratification.”
According to Kudner, three common challenges that hospices often experience with a rebrand include:
— Buy-In: Anticipate some level of resistance or acceptance of change among leadership, community and board members.
— Trademarking: Some healthcare brands seek to trademark their new identity to mitigate the risk of having it used by others.
— Cost: Rebranding under a new name and logo involves marketing research, advertising expenses, brand development strategies, as well as operational and financial resources during implementation processes.
Hospices need to understand that a rebranding process often involves a “multi-year investment,” Kudner said. Several individuals across multiple departments are involved, including leaders, ownership, board members and other key stakeholders, he stated.
A rebrand can help to breakdown common barriers to hospice, according to Renee McInnes, CEO of Massachusetts-based Croí Health. Founded in 1920 and formerly Norwell Visiting Nurse Association (NVNA) and Hospice, the nonprofit rebranded in 2025 and provides hospice, home health and palliative care.
The organization’s former name became “too narrow” to encompass its complete service line, McInnes said. The nonprofit engaged their local community and referrals to learn that the name was “confusing” and caused “uncertainty” among patients, she stated.
Since the rebranding, Croí Health has seen an increased demand for hospice care across its geographic service region, according to McInnes. The name change reflects patients’ growing needs in terms of volume and complexity, she added.
Key to navigating challenges with a rebranding process is highlighting a hospice’s existing reputation for high-quality care, McInnes said. Hospices need to understand that some community referral partners may raise concerns related to whether a hospice ownership change occurred, she said. Clear, consistent communication is needed to strengthen and sustain community relationships.
“Having a name that better represents our range of services has helped us offer clearer communication about our different service lines,” McInnes told Hospice News in an email. “This process didn’t happen overnight, and we have made a concerted effort to educate our team in the field when asked about why we changed when they’re out in the community. Many families who have been familiar with us for years felt a connection to our former name. Some worried that we were bought out, merged, or no longer employed the same people — none of which is the case. Our paramount goal has been to emphasize that nothing has changed but our name.”
Building successful legacies
Rebranding trends in the hospice space have followed evolutions in ownership, organizational structure and care preferences, according to Lagemann.
Some smaller hospices change their name after a merger, joint venture, acquisition or affiliation, she stated. Other hospices choose to rebrand to become more attractive to potential buyers and investors, Lagemann said.
Hospices have also focused their rebrands around patient-centered initiatives, Lagemann said.
For instance, some organizations have dropped culturally specific or faith-based naming conventions to drive more diverse, inclusive and equitable hospice access, she indicated.
The trends in hospice rebranding illustrate common issues that plagued providers for decades, according to Lagemann. Patients often do not receive timely referrals, which leads to short hospice stays and poorer quality, she stated.
Rebranding can be impactful for hospices trying to improve referral streams as they diversify their services and take on new community partners, said Ken Albert, president and CEO of Maine-based Andwell Health Partners.
Formerly Androscoggin Home Healthcare and Hospice, the company rebranded in 2024. Launched in 1966 as a home health organization, Andwell Health later added hospice, palliative care and behavioral health services.
The decision to rebrand aligned with the company’s growing geographic footprint and service lines, Albert said. Andwell Health Partners is the parent organization of several sub-brands including home health, community and behavioral health, maternal and child health, private duty and personal care support, pediatric therapy, mobile wound care, audiology and home-based services. The company also operates two general inpatient hospice care facilities and three thrift stores.
Since the rebranding, Andwell Health Partners has seen its average daily census increase by 130%, according to Albert. The change has helped to position the organization as one of the largest hospice providers in the New England region, he stated. Andwell now serves 14 out of 16 counties in Maine.
“Our patients can – and are – on more than one service at a time, so the sub-brand differentiation is helpful, both when taking incoming calls and when reaching out,” Albert told Hospice News in an email. “While seemingly swimming against the tide, we have moved away from a referral, or sales-based, strategy to position ourselves as a health system with a continuum of services that elevates our value proposition with our healthcare delivery partners.”
Dropping “hospice” from a company name can be challenging, according to Skelly Wingard, CEO of California-based By the Bay Health. Formerly Hospice by the Bay, the organization rebranded in 2021 to reflect its growing range of services. By the Bay Health provides hospice, skilled home health, grief counseling and pediatric, palliative and comfort care.
A strong brand represents accumulated trust, community reputation, quality and “emotional equity,” Wingard said. Organizations that have successfully built up these aspects over decades have a brand that deeply resonates with referral sources, as well as patients and their families.
Transparency is important when communicating a rebranding decision, Wingard stated. An organization must clearly communicate the reasons behind the change alongside its future goals. A rebranding strategy is not the sole the responsibility of a marketing and communications team, but rather a change that occurs in organizational culture and encourage operational excellence, she said.
Hospices need to evaluate a rebrand beyond measures of patient access, Wingard indicated. A successful rebrand is evaluated by meaningful business and engagement metrics, including patterns of referral behavior, digital engagement, service line discovery and stakeholder sentiment.
Strong brand positioning can help consumers to better understand an organization’s services without “unnecessarily limiting” what others believe it can provide, Wingard said. Though some providers may avoid “hospice” in a company name to avoid misunderstandings, it must be clear that their focus remains on end-of-life care. This distinction is crucial to improving community education and awareness, she stated.
Hospices seeking scalable, sustainable growth may lean in the direction of a rebrand to better attract community relationships, according to Wingard.
“Brand governance becomes increasingly important as an organization scales. Our strategy is not to replace it, but to connect and amplify it,” Wingard told Hospice News in an email. “When we changed our name from Hospice By the Bay to By the Bay Health, … the decision was not about distancing ourselves from hospice. Hospice remains fundamental to who we are and to our legacy. Misconceptions about hospice and serious illness care still exist. Rather than avoiding the word ‘hospice,’ we see an opportunity to use the strength of our brand to educate consumers, normalize earlier conversations about serious illness and help patients and families understand the full range of care and support available to them.”
