Industry Notes :
HOSPICE CAP CHANGES ON DECK
Published on Wed Apr 15, 2009
CMS releases 2009 cap amount early. If you're wondering whether you'll have trouble with exceeding the per beneficiary cap this year, you shouldn't have to wonder much longer. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued the 2009 cap amount early "to assist the hospice industry in planning and budgeting," it says on its Web site. The cap amount is $23,014.50. CMS also includes its methodology for the cap calculation "so that hospices can compute the amount themselves in the future if they so desire." That calculation methodology could be changing, however. In its proposed rule in the April 24 Federal Register, CMS floats the idea of revamping how it determines the cap amount. "Until recently, hospices rarely exceeded the aggregate cap," CMS notes in the rule. But now hospices have more patients with longer lengths of stay and exceed the cap more often. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission "found [...]
