Medicare Program; FY 2027 Hospice Wage Index and Payment Rate Update and Hospice Quality Reporting Program Requirements

The record

Publisher

Federal Register

Agency

Health and Human Services Department; Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

Source

Federal Register

Kind

Federal Register: final rule

Jurisdiction

United States

Topics

Health

Importance

Notable, the middle of three tiers Kresmion sets by fixed rules from the source's own fields

Published (source time)

2026-08-03 (the source gives a date only)

First seen on Kresmion

2026-10-26 18:24 UTC

The original

• PDF (Federal Register)

Source: Federal Register (federalregister.gov). U.S. government work, public domain.

The publisher's summary

This final rule updates the hospice wage index, payment rates, and aggregate cap amount for fiscal year 2027. This final rule also includes an analysis of Medicare non-hospice spending, including details regarding a hospice service and spending variation index, and finalizes the requirement that hospices provide the hospice election statement addendum to all Medicare beneficiaries at the time of hospice election. Additionally, this rule finalizes conforming changes to discharge from hospice care regulations and changes to the face-to-face encounter regulations. This final rule also includes a summary of comments received on our requests for information regarding community- based palliative care; the construction of a hospice specific wage index; and the overlap between hospice and medical aid in dying laws. Finally, this rule finalizes changes to the Hospice Quality Reporting Program.

The publisher's words, as published.

Federal Register document

Document number

2026-15686

Document type

Rule

Status

Published