CMS Finalizes 1.8 Percent Pay Bump For Hospice Facilities In Fiscal 2019

CMS finalized a hospice pay bump of 1.8 percent for fiscal 2019 in a rule released Wednesday (Aug. 1) that also raised the cap for how much hospices can be paid in a year and laid out updates to Hospice Compare. The agency also finalized a policy to recognize physician assistants as attending physicians for Medicare hospice patients, as required by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018. CMS will increase hospice pay by $340 million in fiscal 2019, the same...