Home Health & Hospice Week

Representatives for hospice providers are hoping their Feb. 15 face-to-face meeting with the head of CMS will secure some much-needed changes.

Reps from LeadingAge, the National Association for Home Care & Hospice, the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, and the National Partnership for Healthcare and Hospice Innovation met with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure “to share concerns and recommendations to address the rampant growth in the number of Medicare-certified hospices in some states and how CMS can protect Medicare beneficiaries receiving hospice care,” the trade groups say in a joint release. “The discussion also suggested that additional oversight is needed to address hospice program integrity concerns and to ensure that Medicare beneficiaries receive quality hospice care when it is needed at the end of life,” they add.

Watch out: “Based on the discussion, it is clear that CMS is deeply engaged on this issue and committed to taking action,” the groups say.

At the meeting, the reps reiterated their “strong support of a targeted, temporary moratorium on new Medicare certified hospices in counties with troubling trends in the growth of Medicare-certified hospices,” according to the release. And they pushed for “red flag criteria … which would trigger additional oversight … before Medicare certification could be approved,” the groups say. Red flags could include co-location of multiple hospices at single address; a single hospice administrator overseeing multiple hospices; and a patient care manager or other hospice leader serving multiple hospices. More frequent surveys for new hospices are also a good idea, they told Brooks-LaSure.