CMS Issues Proposed Hospice Payment Rule for Fiscal Year 2022 

Situation Report | April 12, 2021

The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued its proposed fiscal year (FY) 2022 payment rule for hospice. It includes an update to the wage index, a 2.3 percent payment update, and a change in the payment cap amount. CMS is proposing an aggregate cap value of $31,389.66 for FY 2022, up from the FY 2021 cap of $30,683.93.

The rule is available on an interim basis here and will be posted in the Federal Register on April 14. HCA will be analyzing the proposed rule in greater detail and providing our hospice membership with a detailed memo analyzing the various components. Below are some preliminary highlights.

For FY 2022, CMS is proposing updates to the hospice wage index and rebasing the labor shares of the hospice payment rates. It also proposes to:

  • Clarify text changes to the election statement addendum requirements that were finalized in the FY 2020 hospice final rule.
  • Make permanent some selected regulatory blanket waivers for hospice agencies during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE), along with revisions to the hospice conditions of participation (CoPs).
  • Changes to the Hospice Quality Reporting Program (HQRP).

This proposed rule also includes information on hospice utilization trends and solicits comments regarding hospice utilization and spending patterns.

Comments are due June 7. Please look for our more detailed analysis in the coming days.