Hospice

The FY2024 hospice proposed rule posted this afternoon.  NAHC staff are in the process of reviewing the proposal and will provide a detailed summary soon.  Below is the Summary as stated in the proposal. While I haven't read it all yet, we have seen that CMS plans to include a proposal implementing an SFP in the CY 2024 Home Health Prospective Payment Update Rate proposed rule as opposed to this hospice proposed rule.  The home health proposed rule is due out in July.

SUMMARY: This proposed rule would update the hospice wage index, payment rates, and aggregate cap amount for fiscal year (FY) 2024. This rule includes information on hospice utilization trends and solicits comments regarding information related to the provision of higher levels of hospice care; spending patterns for non-hospice services provided during the election of the hospice benefit; ownership transparency; equipping patients and caregivers with information to inform hospice selection; and ways to examine health equity under the hospice benefit. This rule also proposes conforming regulations text changes related to the anticipated expiration of the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE). In addition, this rule proposes updates to the Hospice Quality Reporting Program; discusses the Hospice Outcomes and Patient Evaluation tool; provides an update on Health Equity and future quality measures; and provides updates on the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems, Hospice Survey Mode Experiment. This rule also proposes to codify hospice data submission thresholds and discusses updates to hospice survey and enforcement procedures. Additionally, the rule proposes to require hospice certifying physicians to be Medicare-enrolled or to have validly opted-out.