The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services yesterday issued a final rule updating Medicare’s hospice payment rates, wage index and quality reporting requirements for fiscal year 2019. Like the proposed rule, the final rule will increase both aggregate hospice payments and the statutory annual cap by 1.8% ($340 million) from FY 2018 levels, based on a hospital market-basket update of 2.9%, minus a 0.8 percentage point productivity adjustment and 0.3 percentage point adjustment required by law. In addition, the rule implements a Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 provision recognizing physician assistants as attending physicians for hospice beneficiaries. With respect to quality reporting, the rule finalizes a measures removal factor that takes into consideration whether the costs and burden associated with a measure outweighs the benefit of its continued use in the program, as well as several public reporting policies and procedures. For more information, see the CMS factsheet.

Related News Articles

Headline
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services May 12 released draft guidance for the third round of negotiations for the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation…
Headline
The Department of Health and Human Services May 13 announced a 60-day public comment period opened for stakeholders regarding its request for information to…
Headline
Leaders from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services at the 2025 AHA Annual Membership Meeting May 5 discussed issues on the agency’s agenda in a…
Headline
The AHA April 30 released a report highlighting how hospitals and health systems continue to experience significant financial headwinds that can challenge…
Headline
The Supreme Court April 29 ruled 7-2 in favor of the Department of Health and Human Services in a case that challenged how HHS applied Congress’ formula for…
Headline
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services today released a notice seeking public comment on the collection of information request regarding the State…