MedPAC: No 2021 Pay Raise for Hospice, Calls for Payment Cap Cut

Posted on Sunday, January 19, 2020 11:56 PM

At their January meeting, MedPAC members unanimously voted to recommend to Congress that there should be no hospice payment increase for FY 2021 and that there be a 20% reduction in the aggregate payment cap.

The National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) expressed disappointment in the recommendations.

“MedPAC is relaying a message to Congress, and to all Americans, that they encourage care to be provided in acute care settings while discouraging person-centered care in less costly settings like in the home or wherever beneficiaries and their families may consider home,” NHPCO said in a statement.

The payment cap is the top limit to the amount of funds a hospice can collect from Medicare in a single year. If a provider exceeds the cap, it must refund that amount to CMS. For Fiscal Year 2020, the hospice cap is $29,965 per patient.  According to MedPAC, in 2017 fourteen percent of hospices exceeded the cap.

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