Hospice suppliers will obtain a 3.1% Medicare fee enhance subsequent fiscal yr beneath a ultimate rule the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Companies issued Friday.
That is larger than the two.8% reimbursement enhance CMS proposed in a draft regulation printed in March. The ultimate charge for fiscal 2024 is the product of a 3.3% market basket enhance adjusted for productiveness. Starting subsequent yr, hospice suppliers that fail to satisfy high quality reporting necessities will likely be topic to a four-percentage-point penalty. The ultimate rule raises the combination quantity hospices will be paid per affected person per yr by 3.1% to $33,491.
CMS additionally touted the regulation as a device to crack down on waste and fraud within the hospice sector. For instance, the ultimate rule requires that physicians who admit sufferers to hospice be Medicare suppliers or have opted out of this system through the quarter through which the admission happens.
LeadingAge, a commerce affiliation for nonprofit hospice companies, characterised the reimbursement hike as insufficient amid inflation.
“Even with this enhance, situations on the bottom require extra help: workforce prices are larger than ever; nurses and aides are scarce; and prices for provides, medication, gasoline and different bills are all inflated,” LeadingAge President and CEO Katie Smith Sloan stated in an announcement.
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