FY 2025 Hospice Payment Rate Update Proposed Rule Summary

On March 28, 2024, CMS placed on public display a proposed rule updating the Medicare hospice payment rates, wage index and Hospital Quality Reporting Program (HQRP) for FY 2025. The proposed rule is scheduled to be published in the April 4, 2024, issue of the Federal Register. Comments on the proposed rule are due by May 28, 2024. For FY 2025, CMS proposes to adopt the most recent Office of Management and Budget statistical area delineations, which revises the existing care-based statistical areas, and would change the hospice wage index. Hospices affected by the change to their geographic wage index will be eligible for applying a 5-percent cap on any decrease to the wage index from the prior year. The rule also proposes that HQRP measures will be collected through a new collection instrument, the Hospice Outcomes and Patient Evaluation (HOPE) and proposes two HOPE- based measures. This rule also proposes changes to the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Hospice Survey. CMS requests information regarding payment mechanisms for high intensity palliative care services and social determinants of health elements for inclusion as potential future measures in the HQRP. CMS estimates that the overall impact of the proposed rule will be an increase of $705 million (2.6 percent) in Medicare payments to hospices during FY 2025.