2018 Proposed Rules Hospice

An Analysis and Commentary on Federal Health Care Issues by Larry Goldberg

CMS Issues Proposed FY 2018 Hospice Wage Index, Payment Rate and Quality Reporting Requirements Update

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have issued a proposed rule that would update hospice payment rates, wage index values, and quality reporting items for fiscal year (FY) 2018.

The 158-page proposal is scheduled for publication in the Federal Register on May 3rd. A 60-day comment period ending June 26 is provided. A copy is currently available at: https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/201708563.pdf. Of course, this link will change upon publication.

Section 411(d) of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) amends section 1814(i) of the Social Security Act to set the market basket percentage increase at 1.0 percent for hospices in FY 2018 that submit quality. CMS estimates that overall hospice payments will increase by $180 million in FY 2018 over FY 2017. Hospices that fail to provide mandated quality care measures would see a 2.0 decrease in their updates.

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