CMS RELEASES PROPOSED FY 2012 HOSPICE PAYMENT RULE, INCLUDING FACE-TO-FACE LANGUAGE

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released its Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 proposed rule for hospice reimbursements that would provide for a 2.3 percent payment increase. The agency also included a new quality reporting program in its proposed rule – requiring hospices to submit data on two quality measures beginning in 2014 with payment reductions as a penalty for non-compliance.

In other hospice policy news, the proposed rule made changes to the so-called “face-to-face” rule mandated by the healthcare reform law, by removing the requirement that the hospice physician who performs the face-to-face encounter and attests to that encounter be the same physician who certifies the patient’s terminal illness. In addition, other face-to-face clarifications from CMS included the definition of a hospice employee and the requirement that the encounter cannot take place more than 30 days prior to the start date of the benefit.

The proposed rule was published in the Federal Register on May 9 and has an open comment period of 60 days.

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