Discussion of Changes to the Medicare Hospice Benefit

The Washington Post covers the changes in store for hospices who participate in Medicare. Reporter Alicia Ault pays particular interest in the move toward providing quality measures of hospice providers.

Beginning Dec. 2, hospice organizations will also have to implement a quality assessment and improvement system. Hospices will have to show the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency that administers Medicare, that they are trying to improve in problem areas.

Initially, quality data will be available only to each hospice organization and Medicare. Eventually, providers and advocates expect, data will be shared with the public, as the federal government has done with information on nursing homes, hospitals and home health agencies.

The June 2008 Report to Congress by MedPAC, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, also discussed the potential changes in detail and options for how to provide quality measures, starting on p. 227 of the report.