Home Health & Hospice Week

Forthcoming guidance will address hospice cap methodology, quality measure reporting. Changes are coming to the Medicare hospice program, some of them in a rush. The hospice 2012 final payment rule put in place a change to hospice cap calculation methodology and a new voluntary quality reporting initiative that will become mandatory in 2013 (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XX, No. 28). By the end of the month, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services plans to issue instructions to its contractors regarding the cap methodology change, a CMS official said in the Aug. 17 home health Open Door Forum. The cap calculation had previously been put on hold during rulemaking. Hospices will have the choice of whether to continue with their current "streamlined" cap calculation or go with a new methodology. Under the new way, the hospice's beneficiary count will be prorated between years the bene is on service. With the [...]