FY 2018 Updates to the Hospice Wage Index and Payment Rates

On August 1, CMS issued a final rule that updates FY 2018 Medicare payment rates and the wage index for hospices serving Medicare beneficiaries, and also updates the hospice quality reporting requirements. Section 411(d) of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 amends section 1814(i) of the Social Security Act to set the market basket percentage increase at 1 percent for hospices in FY 2018. Hospices will generally see a 1.0 percent ($180 million aggregate) increase in their payments for FY 2018. As mandated by the Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation Act of 2014, the cap amount for accounting years that end after September 30, 2016, and before October 1, 2025, must be updated by the hospice payment update percentage, rather than the Consumer Price Index. The cap amount for FY 2018 will be $28,689.04 (2017 cap amount of $28,404.99 increased by 1 percent).

The final rule also includes:

• Hospice Quality Reporting Program, including submission exemption and extension requirements for the FY 2019 payment determination and subsequent years 
• Hospice CAHPS® Experience of Care Survey 
• Public reporting 
• Quality measure concepts under consideration for future years 
• New data collection mechanisms under consideration: Hospice Evaluation & Assessment Reporting Tool

 For More Information:

Final Rule (CMS-1675-F)

Hospice Center website

See the full text of this excerpted Fact Sheet (issued August 1).

(Information from CMS.)