article thumbnail

How Medicare Budget Neutrality Impacts Hospice Payment

Hospice News

Medicare reimbursement is the lifeblood of hospice providers, and a clear understanding of policies like budget neutrality can help elucidate the payment systems that keep their businesses running. The clearest example of how this works was the 2020 rebasing of payments for the four levels of hospice care.

Medicare 214
article thumbnail

CMS 2025 Proposed Rule Signals Changes to Quality Measurement, Omits Program Integrity Actions

Hospice News

The 2025 proposed hospice rule is raising some questions along with payment rates. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed a 2.6% increase in hospice per diems for 2025. We know that hospice care has demonstrated $3.5 Hospice care saves Medicare roughly $3.5

2025 237
professionals

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

Congress Grills HHS on Hospice Program Integrity

Hospice News

Members of Congress are raising questions about the continued Medicare certification for new hospices in areas rife with fraud. Some of these providers engaged in referral kickback schemes, enrolled patients who were not eligible for hospice and lied to them about being terminally ill. Michelle Steel (R-Calif.)

2010 242
article thumbnail

Citing Competition and Consumer-Protection Concerns, CMS Makes Hospice-Ownership Data Publicly Available

Hospice News

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is making hospice-ownership data publicly available. HHS is also releasing ownership data for all Medicare-certified home health agencies, the department specified in a Thursday announcement. ” This is a developing story. Please check back later for additional updates.

Medicare 256
article thumbnail

U.S. Health Care Expenditures to Reach $7.1 Trillion by 2031; Hospice Spending to Double by 2032

Hospice News

The nation’s total health care spend is expected to swell by 5.4% Meanwhile, Medicare hospice spending is expected to more than double by 2032. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Office of the Actuary also project that health care expenditures will represent 19.6% These data from the U.S.

Medicare 226
article thumbnail

Hospice Length of Stay: Balancing Patient Needs Against Regulatory Compliance

Hospice News

“For a hospice administrator or executive, you really have to be very focused on your length of stay data,” Young told Hospice News in a recent Elevate podcast episode. Are you in an outlier scenario with your data that Medicare contractors are looking at? Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the U.S.

Hospice 257
article thumbnail

Many Hospices Need to Step Up Disaster Planning

Hospice News

Operators need to be prepared to deliver care and support their communities’ responses to catastrophic events. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) expanded a Condition of Participation pertaining to disaster preparedness planning. Last year, The Joint Commission implemented similar requirements for hospices.

Hospice 272