Hospice:
HIGHER HOSPICE PAYMENT RATES ARRIVE APRIL 3
Published on Fri Feb 27, 2009
Big cuts still lie ahead for industry, feds warn. Hospices should finally begin seeing payment relief based on the stimulus bill that President Obama signed last month. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and its contractors have made the necessary payment system updates and hospices will begin receiving payments without the budget neutrality adjustment factor (BNAF) cuts to wage index April 3, CMS's Lori Anderson said at the National Association for Home Care & Hospice's March on Washington meeting March 23. As required by the law, CMS has restored the hospice wage index to the level it would have been without the BNAF cut, CMS notes in March 13 Transmittal No. 1701 (CR 6418). The BNAF reduction lowered hospice payment rates by a little more than 1 percent. Cuts still planned: But hospices should remember that the delay to the 2009 portion of the BNAF reduction doesn't affect the [...]