You can look at your new hospice payment rates in an official Change Request to MACs. The rates in the CR show a 2.1 percent increase, but CMS explained in its 2015 final rule that hospices would actually see a 1.4 percent bump starting Oct. 1 (see Eli’s HCW, Vol. XXIII, No. 28). The rest of the decrease occurs in the wage index levels. See the CR at
www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Guidance/Transmittals/Downloads/R3023CP.pdf.