On the evening of June 28, 2021, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the CY 2022 proposed payment rule for home health agencies (HHAs). This proposed rule includes the annual payment update as well as proposed policies for the quality reporting program, value-based purchasing model, and supervision requirements. This proposed rule also [...] Read More
On the evening of April 8th, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the fiscal year (FY) 2022 proposed rule for hospices. This proposed rule includes the annual payment and quality reporting updates, a request for feedback on hospice utilization, and a proposal to make certain blanket waivers permanent that were adopted in [...] Read More
On the evening of July 31, 2020, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released three payment rules for the upcoming fiscal year 2021. These rules contain finalized payment policies for skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), hospices, and inpatient psychiatric facilities. Because of the ongoing COVID-19 public health emergency, CMS has limited the annual rulemaking [...] Read More
On the afternoon of April 30th, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it submitted a second interim final rule (IFC) to the Federal Register and that it released an additional set of blanket waivers under section 1135 of the Social Security Act aimed at addressing the ongoing COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE). Below are many of the new flexibilities and capabilities included in the waivers and rule: Interim Final [...] Read More
On the evening of April 10th, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released three proposed rules. These rules include proposals related to payment, quality reporting, and other areas for skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), inpatient psychiatric facilities, and hospices. Comments on the proposed rules are due on June 9, 2020. Total Payments to SNFs to [...] Read More
Tweet On July 31, 2019, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the final FY 2020 hospice payment rule. The proposal finalizes an overall payment increase for hospices as well as rebased rates for three levels of care. Provisions of this final rule take effect on October 1, 2019. Per Diem rates rebased [...] Read More
This evening, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the fiscal year (FY) 2020 payment rule for hospices. The proposed rule includes a payment increase of 2.7 percent for FY 2020 as a proposed change to the hospice election statement, and a request for information (RFI) on the role of hospice care. Comments [...] Read More
This evening, CMS released its final FY 2019 Hospice Wage Index and Payment Rate Update and Hospice Quality Reporting Requirements. The final rule updates hospice payment rates for FY 2019 and finalizes CMS’ proposal to allow physician assistants as designated hospice attending physicians effective January 1, 2019. The rule also includes changes to the Hospice Quality [...] Read More
This evening, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released proposed payment rules for four settings of care: hospices, inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRF), skilled nursing facilities (SNF), and inpatient psychiatric facilities. Each rule contains payment updates for the prospective payment system for each type of facility as well as update to additional policies. All […]
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