Posted on Thursday, August 9, 2018 3:32 PM
As part of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, there is a provision that certain early hospital discharges to hospice care will be paid at a per diem rate instead of the full diagnosis-related group (DRG) beginning on October 1, 2018.
“This change does not directly impact payments from Medicare to hospice providers, the hospice community is concerned that the change will delay admissions to hospice as hospitals will have a financial reason to keep them in their care. A positive aspect of the plan is that CMS is defining a hospital to hospice transfer as a direct to hospice transfer, which will limit the applicability to only those hospital discharges that occur on the same date as the patient begins hospice care (the effective date of hospice election).”
Hospices are encouraged to keep an eye on any changes in hospital referring patterns.
Source: NAHC
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