South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R), has signed legislation expanding the scope of practice for physician assistants in that state, including granting them authority to refer patients to hospice. The law will become effective Aug. 11. The new law also streamlines the licensure process to ensure that trained physician assistants can get to work more […]
National and regional hospice chains seem unfazed by proposed Medicare payment rebasing for fiscal year 2020—confident that the updates will not adversely affect their businesses—though smaller organizations may take a more significant hit. The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in late April released its annual proposed rule that outlines the agency’s regulatory […]
Despite rate increases for some care levels, hospices would lose a dollar per patient, per day of routine home care under the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Fiscal Year 2020 proposed rule. The agency has proposed a 2.7 percent cut in payments to hospice providers for routine home care. Corresponding 2.7 percent […]
The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has unveiled a set of voluntary five-year payment models under a program called Primary Care First. Though today’s announcement focused on primary care, hospices and palliative care providers will be able to participate in the new models, according to the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC), […]
Hospices in Fiscal Year 2020 would be required to provide an election statement addendum upon request from the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), if the agency makes final provisions in a recently proposed rule. If the agency were to request such an addendum from a hospice, submission of that document would become […]
The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) intends to raise hospice payment rates for certain levels of care by 2.7 percent for Fiscal Year 2020, according to a proposed rule that outlines the agency’s regulatory priorities for hospice in the coming year. The increases apply to continuous home care, inpatient care, and inpatient […]
As hospices ready themselves for a Medicare Advantage (MA) carve-in, U.S. Reps. Suzan DelBene (D-Wa.) and Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) plan to introduce a bill to reduce regulatory burdens associated with the prior authorization process, a legislative aide from DelBene’s office told Hospice News. Though the bill text is not yet complete, the co-sponsors are basing […]
The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is working to fix bugs in the Medicare claims processing system resulted in underpayments to hospices during 2018 and early 2019. The agency also alerted hospices to revised rules for electronic signatures and appeals. CMS last year altered Medicare’s claims processing systems to better identify prior […]
A major fraud case centered around live hospice discharges is being argued not only in 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, but in the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal. Kyle Clark and Andrew George, trial lawyers for the Washington-based law firm of Baker Botts published a recent editorial, “Medicare’s Hospice Rules Could Make Your […]
First proposed in 2017, the Rural Access to Hospice Act is expected to pass the 116th Congress due to widespread bipartisan support, according to hospice policy advocates. U.S. Senators Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), reintroduced the legislation last week. If enacted it would remove a statutory barrier in current law, allowing patients […]
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