The four preeminent national hospice organizations – LeadingAge, the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC), the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) and the National Partnership for Healthcare and Hospice Innovation (NPHI) – are concerned by reports of rapid proliferation of newly certified hospice agencies in a handful of states that could create opportunities for fraud and abuse in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The four organizations recently wrote a joint letter to U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator, Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, requesting a meeting about this important issue and encouraging “increased federal oversight…to protect hospice patients and their families, as well as the vast majority of hospice providers that properly observe Medicare and Medicaid laws and regulations.”

Please see the letter attached here.