CMS Publishes Final Hospice Payment Rules for 2016 - 8/3/2015

On Friday July 31^st CMS published the Final Hospice Payment Rules for 2016. This includes the changes in the routine home care payment rates based on the length of stay.  They have decided to delay the change in payment for the length of stay from October 1, 2015 to January 1, 2016.  Beginning on October 1^st the base National Routine Home Care payment rate will be $161.89.  Remember this will need to be adjusted for case mix and quality data submission. 

Beginning January 1, 2016 the tier payment scenario will begin.  You will have a National Routine Home Care rate of $186.84 for day 1 to day 60.  The National Routine Home Care rate will be $146.83 for days after day 60.  The new Service Intensity Add-on for the last 7 days of a patient life will also begin on January 1, 2016.  In the proposed rules it stated that patients living in nursing facilities or skilled nursing facilities would not be eligible to the Service Intensity Add-on, but that has been dropped in the final rule

Temporary Link to Final Rule

 https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2015-19033.pdf