FY 2025 Hospice Proposed Rule

As it does every spring, on April 4, 2024 the Federal Register published the final version of CMS 1810-P, the FY2025 Hospice Wage Index proposed rule. Upon first reading, my internal reaction was, “Finally!”

Finally, we get the released HOPE tool for quality reporting. Finally, we get an improved version of the CAHPS survey, along with a new web-mail mode that should improve response rates. Finally, CMS proposes the clarifying language that hospices have been asking for in connection with physician designees and the Election statement versus the Notice of Election (NOE).

Of course everyone’s first question will be about the proposed rates for next year…

Judi Lund PersonJudi Lund PersonApril 9, 2024MedicareComment

CMS Says "Never Mind" about the Hospice Carve-In

After building a future carve-in into hospice strategic planning since the demonstration program was announced in 2019, now all of us in the field are trying to quickly re-think. The first questions for many providers of hospice and palliative care are, why this sudden change, and what does this mean for the future of our field? At first blush this may seem unalloyed good news for providers facing negative margins and tremendous competitive pressures…

Sue Lyn SchrammSue Lyn SchrammMarch 5, 2024hospice, Medicare Advantage, Medicare, strategyComment

Marketing Hospice and Palliative Care to ACOs

Medicare Accountable Care Organizations have given limited attention to end-of-life care up to now. But that may be about to change. In December 2018 Medicare announced sweeping changes to the structure and incentives of the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP). We at Schramm Consulting believe that the changes will enforce greater cost discipline for ACO owners and may offer greater opportunities to hospice and palliative care providers than they’ve enjoyed up until now.

Sue Lyn SchrammSue Lyn SchrammApril 30, 2019hospice, ACO, Marketing, Medicare, MSSPComment

CMS Rebases Non-Routine Levels of Care in FY2020

On the Friday afternoon before Easter weekend, CMS dropped a bombshell. In its proposed rule for fiscal year 2020, it lays out an update to the hospice reimbursement rates that would increase all non-routine levels of care significantly. In order to make the change budget-neutral, this means CMS would reduce the scheduled increase to Routine Home Care rates to keep them essentially flat from FY2019 to FY 2020. For hospices that currently provide little or no care at the non-routine levels, this is unadulterated bad news. However, for the average freestanding nonprofit hospice, CMS believes this will have a positive effect of an overall 4.2% increase in revenue. For hospices operating dedicated hospice facilities, I believe the impact may be far better than that.

Sue Lyn SchrammSue Lyn SchrammApril 22, 2019Hospice, GIP, Medicare, FY2020Comment

Hospice Strategy Blog

Specialists in Hospice and Palliative Care