Home Health & Hospice Week

Industry Note:

Comment On Hospice Drug Coverage Guidance ASAP

If you were slammed by the holidays and didn’t have time to comment on Medicare’s new guidance regarding hospice and Part D drugs, you’ve gotten another chance.

Reminder: In a Dec. 6 memo to Part D plans, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Ser-vices says, "We expect drugs covered under Part D for hospice beneficiaries will be extremely rare" (see Eli’s HCW, Vol. XXII, No. 43). "Therefore, the sponsors should place beneficiary-level [prior authorization] requirements on all drugs for hospice beneficiaries to determine whether the drugs are coverable under Part D," CMS instructs. CMS said it would take comments on the memo until Jan. 6.

But you’ll still have to hurry. CMS has pushed back the comment deadline to Jan. 10, it says on its website. The memo is at www.cms.gov/Medicare/Medicare-Fee-for-Service-Payment/Hospice/Downloads/Hospice-PartD-Payment.pdf.

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