On April 11, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released the FY2026 Hospice Wage Index Proposed Rule.

The proposed hospice payment update percentage for FY2026 is 2.4 percent. The proposed hospice cap amount for the FY2026 cap year is $35,292.51.

The rule also includes a proposed regulation change to the regulations regarding admission to hospice. Specifically, CMS proposes to add the text “or the physician member of the hospice interdisciplinary group” at § 418.25(a) and (b) to indicate that, in addition to the medical director or physician designee, the physician member of the hospice interdisciplinary group (IDG) may also determine admission to hospice care. This proposal is consistent with comments from the FY2025 Hospice Wage Index Rule which highlighted additional areas that needed to be aligned between regulatory language.

Additionally, CMS proposes a clarification to the regulation around the face-to-face attestation. CMS proposes that the attestation from the physician or nurse practitioner who conducts the face-to-face must include their signature and date of signing.

CMS provided an update on the Hospice Quality Reporting Program including the reindorsement of the Hospice Visits in the Last Days of Life measure, their plan to maintain the Comprehensive Assessment at Admission measure as part of public reporting, and the respecification of the Hospice Care Index measure through a Technical Expert Panel.

There is no planned delay for the Hospice Outcomes and Patient Evaluation (HOPE) tool. The rule also provides an update on the transition to iQIES for hospice providers.

Finally, the rule includes a request for information on the current state of health information technology use including electronic health records, interoperability, wellbeing, and nutrition.

For more details, read our members-only Summary: FY2026 Hospice Wage Index Proposed Rule article.

A Fact Sheet summarizing the proposals is available here, and a link to the proposal is available here.