Home Health & Hospice Week

It’s not just home health agencies that should receive a positive payment adjustment due to payment projection inaccuracies. Hospices need the pay bump too to make things right, industry reps say.

“In FY 2021 and FY 2022, the final hospice market basket payment updates published by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services were 2.4 percent and 2.7 percent, respectively,” the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization says in its comment letter on the hospice proposed rule. “However, the data used to set this update did not take into account the record high inflation or the substantial increases in staffing costs, the cost of medical supplies, and the cost of drugs over the previous two years,” NHPCO says in the letter dated May 30, the day comments on the rule were due.

“Our analysis of the actual market basket update for 2021 is 3.0 percent and for 2022 is 5.7 percent,” the trade group says. “This represents a 3.7 percent variance from the combined FY 2021 and FY 2022 actual market basket updates.”

“NHPCO requests a one-time retrospective adjustment, using CMS’ special exception and adjustment authority to revise the Hospice Wage Index and Quality Reporting final rule,” according to the letter. “We request a 3.7 percent adjustment for the combined FY 2021 and FY 2022 market baskets to ensure Medicare payments more accurately reflect the cost of providing hospice care.”

The National Association for Home Care & Hospice and the Partnership for Quality Home Healthcare recently asked CMS for a reimbursement bump in the 2024 rulemaking cycle due to a cumulative 5.1 percent shortfall (see HHHW by AAPC, Vol. XXXII, No. 19).