Home Health & Hospice Week

Hospices and their representatives would rather the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services postpone the Medicare Advantage carve-in of hospice that took effect Jan. 1 . But since CMS hasn’t done so, the agency is moving ahead with its January office hours on the topic.

There are many flaws and gray areas in the model, noted the National Association for Home Care & Hospice in writing to CMS leaders asking for a one-year delay to the Value-Based Insurance Design (VBID) option. But “we are deeply concerned that in planning for the Model, [CMS] failed to take into consideration the need to address some of the most basic operational issues, including how hospice providers will bill for patients enrolled in the Model,” NAHC notes in its member newsletter.

CMS is holding Office Hours for the VBID Hospice Benefit Component on Jan. 12. The session aims “to provide technical and operational support to interested stakeholders” and “will focus on answering live questions from attendees,” CMS says in a notice. You can also submit questions ahead of time to VBID@cms.hhs.gov.

Register for the session at https://innovation.cms.gov/ vbid-hospice-tech-series-session4.