The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a final rule that will become effective Oct.1 updating Medicare’s hospice payment rates, wage index and quality reporting requirements for fiscal year (FY) 2019. The final rule will also increase the aggregate hospice payments and the statutory annual cap by 1.8 percent from FY 2018 levels. For hospice providers not participating in hospice quality reporting, the hospice payment update for FY 2019 is -0.2 percent
The rule implements a Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 provision recognizing physician assistants as attending physicians for hospice beneficiaries effective Jan. 1, 2019.
A summary of the final rule can be found here.
