The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued its fiscal year (FY) 2021 payment rule for hospices on Fri., April 10^th. Per a CMS fact sheet, the proposed rule for hospices calls for "routine updates to hospice payments for FY 2021, in accordance with existing statutory and regulatory requirements." The proposed rule also includes model examples of the hospice election statement and addendum that reflect changes finalized in the agency's FY 2020 hospice rule for elections made on or after Oct. 1, 2020.

CMS projects that, under the proposed rule, Medicare payments for hospices would increase by about 2.6 percent, or a total of $580 million, in FY 2021 when compared with FY 2020. CMS said that the estimated payment increase stems from a 3 percent inpatient hospital market basket update minus a 0.4-percentage-point reduction from the multifactor productivity adjustment. CMS noted that hospices that do not meet certain quality reporting requirements would receive a two-percentage-point reduction in the annual market basket update for FY 2021.

LeadingAge NY will analyze the proposed rule further and be seeking input from members, as comments to CMS are due June 9, 2020.

Contact: Meg Everett, meverett@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8871