Home Health & Hospice Week

Average LOS increased 50 percent from 2000 to 2007.

 Here are the statistics that law- and policymakers are using to make decisions about hospice payment change, courtesy of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission:

• From 2000 to 2007, Medicare hospice spending tripled, the number of hospice patients doubled, and the number of providers grew by 45 percent.

• From 2000 to 2007, average length of stay increased 50 percent, due to increases in very long stays.

• Profit margins were higher among for-profit hospices and those with longer average LOS.

• More than half of Medicare’s $13.8 billion in hospice spending in 2011 was for patients with stays exceeding 180 days.

• In 2011, Medicare spent $2.7 billion on hospice for patients already on service for at least a year.

• Under the U-shaped model and rates MedPAC proposes, payments would increase by more than 2 percent for the majority of provider-based (70 percent), nonprofit (61 percent), and rural (52 percent) hospices.

Source: "Medicare Hospice Policy Issues," www.medpac.gov/transcripts/hospice_April_2013_presentation.pdf .