2017 Final Rules Hospice
An Analysis and Commentary on Federal Health Care Issues by Larry Goldberg
CMS Issues Final FY 2017 Hospice Update
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have issued a
final rule to update hospice payment rates for fiscal year (FY) 2017.
The rule is scheduled for publication in the Federal Register on August
5th. A copy is currently available at: https://s3.amazonaws.com/publicinspection.federalregister.gov/2016-18221.pdf.
This link will change
upon publication.
Hospices will receive a 2.1 percent increase in their payments for FY
2017 (reflecting an estimated 2.7 percent inpatient hospital market
basket update, reduced by a 0.3 percentage point productivity
adjustment and a 0.3 percentage point adjustment both required by the
Affordable Care Act (ACA). The changes will result in $350 in
additional payments.
The hospice cap amount for the 2017 cap year will be $28,404.99, which is equal to the 2016 cap
amount ($27,820.75) updated by the FY 2017 hospice payment update percentage of 2.1 percent.
In addition, the rule finalizes changes to the hospice quality reporting program, including the addition of
two new quality measures. The final rule also describes a potential future enhanced data collection
instrument, as well as plans to publicly display quality measures and other hospice data beginning in
calendar year (CY) 2017.
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