The FY 2020 Hospice Proposed Rule was put on display for public inspection on April 19, 2019. The proposed rule is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on April 25, 2019. In the meantime, the pre-publication version can be viewed here. If finalized, this Hospice proposed rule will be effective October 1, 2019.
Each year, CMS publishes updates to the regulations for inflation factors, wage adjustments, etc. For FY 2020, CMS has proposed the following updates to the Medicare Hospice payment rates:
Hospice Payments where Quality Standards are met
|
Code/Description |
FY 2019 |
FY 2020 |
Percent Change |
|
651 – Routine Home Care day 1-60 |
$196.25 |
$195.65 |
-0.31% |
|
651 – Routine Home Care day 61+ |
$154.21 |
$154.63 |
0.27% |
|
652 – Continuous Home Care (CHC) |
$997.38 |
$1,405.81 |
40.95% |
|
655 – Inpatient Respite Care (IRC) |
$176.01 |
$449.78 |
155.54% |
|
656 – General Inpatient Care (GIC) |
$1,027.43 |
$1,027.43 |
0% |
Hospice Payments where Quality Standards are not met
|
Code/Description |
FY 2019 |
FY 2020 |
Percent Change |
|
651 – Routine Home Care day 1-60 |
$196.25 |
$191.84 |
-2.25% |
|
651 – Routine Home Care day 61+ |
$154.21 |
$151.62 |
-1.68% |
|
652 – Continuous Home Care (CHC) |
$997.38 |
$1,378.43 |
38.21% |
|
655 – Inpatient Respite Care (IRC) |
$176.01 |
$441.02 |
150.57% |
|
656 – General Inpatient Care (GIC) |
$1,027.43 |
$1,007.42 |
-1.95% |
Other notable items from our initial review of the proposed Hospice rule include:
The proposed hospice cap amount for FY 2020 will be $29,993.99 which is an increase from $29,205.44.
CMS is also proposing to use the same pre-reclassified, pre-floor hospital wage index from the current year as the hospice wage index. This would base the hospice wage index on the FY 2020 IPPS hospital wage index, pre-floor and pre-reclassified.
Public comments can be submitted through 5 pm EST on June 18, 2019. CMS has also released the 2020 IPPS, Rehab, Psych and SNF proposed rules. Be sure to review the posts for highlights and be sure not to miss future posts about these rules by to subscribing to our blog below:
