Home Health & Hospice Week

Hospice agencies hoping to see the end of the Medicare Advantage Value-Based Insurance Design carve-in are out of luck.

The MA VBID Model will be extended for calendar years 2025 through 2030, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has announced. “As part of this Model test, MAOs that participate in [the hospice] component will be able to offer their enrollees additional services, including non-hospice palliative care for those not eligible for hospice care, transitional concurrent care through in-network providers to help ease enrollees’ transition to hospice, and hospice supplemental benefits (which may be limited to enrollees who use in-network providers when approved by CMS) to provide additional coverage, items, services, or supplies to support enrollees in hospice,” CMS says in its 2024 RFA fact sheet on the model.

“For MAOs that apply and are accepted to be part of the Hospice Benefit Component, CMS will evaluate the impact on cost and quality of care for MA enrollees, including how the component improves quality and timely access to the hospice benefit, and the enabling of innovation through fostering partnerships between MAOs and hospice providers,” CMS adds.

More info is at https://innovation.cms.gov/innovation-models/vbid-hospice-benefit-outreach-education.