On April 15, CMS published a proposed rule for the FY 2021 Hospice Prospective Payment System (PPS). The proposed rule includes updates to the hospice wage index, payment rates, and cap amount for fiscal year (FY) 2021, including an overall 2.6 percent payment increase of $580 million. Rural hospice providers would experience an average 2.8% increase. The rule also proposes a 5 percent cap on wage index decreases and adopts the most recent Office of Management and Budget (OMB) statistical area delineations with 34 urban counties becoming rural and 47 rural counties becoming urban. Find more information here.
