May 13, 2026, Washington, DC – Statement from Katie Smith Sloan, president and CEO, LeadingAge, the association of nonprofit providers of aging services, including home health and hospice, on today’s announcement from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) of a six-month, national moratoria on new Medicare enrollment for hospice and home health agencies:

“Bad actors and fraudulent activities in the home health and hospice sector that exploit and game Medicare and Medicaid programs must be stopped. It’s that simple. Abusing benefits created to serve the homebound and people in their final stage of life is inexcusable. We fully support the administration’s goal of preventing further attacks on programs designed to protect the vulnerable.

What’s more, our position on approach is clear: we support targeted program integrity efforts that root out bad actors and ensure legitimate providers have the resources they need to deliver quality care. Short-term pauses on new provider enrollees, such as the six-month moratoria CMS announced today, can be appropriate tools to allow the agency time to develop and implement longer-term solutions. We support this approach and encourage, as we’ve recommended in recent comment letters, implementing focused approaches to oversight including enhanced site visits, as well as stronger enrollment controls. Such a robust oversight framework should produce desired results so that, when the freeze is lifted, newly enrolled providers are screened more appropriately for participation in the Medicare program and existing bad actors are caught. Transparency on the criteria CMS will use to determine when the moratoria will end is important.

We thank the administration for understanding that utilizing telehealth for the face-to-face recertification is critical for maintaining access to hospice services and maintaining that flexibility.

LeadingAge looks forward to continuing to partner with Congress and CMS over the next six months to ensure that the moratoria achieve their intended goals: positive policy changes that allow legitimate providers to deliver services, ensuring access to care for these vulnerable populations while rooting out bad actors.”