Home Health & Hospice Week

Medicare’s concurrent care demonstration project will get another year.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services “will extend the Medicare Care Choices Model (MCCM) by one calendar year, through December 31, 2021, allowing more Medicare beneficiaries to access supportive care,” CMS says in a message to providers.

Reminder: MCCM tests “a new option for Medicare beneficiaries to receive supported care services from selected hospice providers, while continuing to receive services provided by other Medicare providers, including care for their terminal condition,” CMS explains on its MCCM webpage. “CMS will evaluate whether providing these supportive services can improve the quality of life and care received by Medicare beneficiaries, increase patient satisfaction, and reduce Medicare expenditures. Under current payment rules, Medicare and dually eligible beneficiaries are required to forgo Medicare payment for care related to their terminal condition in order to receive services under the Medicare or Medicaid hospice benefit.”

Participating MCCM hospices will be able to enroll eligible beneficiaries through June 30, 2021, and provide MCCM services for them through December 31, 2021, CMS says. The extension will apply to hospices already participating in the model. “No new hospices will be enrolled,” CMS emphasizes.

There are currently 82 participants in the demo, CMS says on the MCCM webpage. CMS will reach out to them about the voluntary extension “in the coming days,” the message says.