White Paper Addresses New Hospice Regulations

With accelerating growth in consumer awareness of hospice, tolerance for the shortage of data is fading fast. Consumers, regulators, payers, policy-makers, advocates, healthcare partners across the continuum and hospice provider executives all need more data.

The white paper, "Two Words for Hospice Leaders: Prove It", examines the ways in which hospice leaders must increase their capacity to capture, report, and analyze data, both to direct their own strategic efforts and to demonstrate quality and value to their many constituents.

Hospice resource for CR 5567
CMS is moving forward with a phased increase in data required of hospices, in order to improve hospice benefit payment accuracy and analyze the services provided in this evolving and growing benefit. With a Change Request to the Medicare billing requirements (CR 5567), CMS has begun the second phase of expanding required line level detail on hospice claims. CR 5567 requires additional data to describe services provided for each hospice level of care, mandatory beginning July 1, 2008.

This guide summarizes the new requirements, provides direction regarding interpretation challenges and implementation priorities, and lists additional resources for information. Discussions with CMS on behalf of hospice providers are ongoing, and the regional home health intermediaries (RHHIs) are refining their specifications for CR 5567. This document will be updated as appropriate. Click here to download the guide.