September 26, 2024 Washington, DC — A statement from Katie Smith Sloan, president and CEO, LeadingAge, the association of nonprofit providers of aging services, including hospice, on the Hospice Care Accountability, Reform and Enforcement (CARE) Act of 2024, introduced today in the House of Representatives by Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR):
“The hospice benefit, while unique, is ripe for change. This legislation is a first-of-its-kind opportunity to improve it.
Revising a benefit that has not been altered significantly since its creation in 1982 is a formidable undertaking – but a necessary one. Done right, changes will expand the benefit to support the realities of modern-day hospice care, address vulnerabilities that are currently being exploited and help ensure quality to support strong funding. There is more work to do, and we look forward to continuing our productive partnership to ensure this bill achieves these goals.
We thank Mr. Blumenauer for his longtime leadership on hospice issues and for his courage in leading this legislative effort.”
Important aspects of the Hospice CARE Act, Sloan said, are:
- Inclusions: respite care at home; expansions of inpatient hospice options; a payment stream for certain high-cost therapies– all of which we have long advocated for – will, we expect, expand access to and incentivize high quality hospice care.
- Program integrity protections: provisions that will help stop the proliferation of fraudulent providers, help to identify fraud and abuse in a timely manner and preclude illicit business formation by fraudulent providers; ensure better targeting of program-integrity resources, improvements to auditor education and increased transparency into the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) regulatory practices around audits.
- Provisions to be refined: Routine home care payment reform, creation of “referring physician” role, and new mechanisms to monitor unrelated spending are well intentioned policies that, while improved from the draft bill, need additional revisions.
Adds Mollie Gurian, Vice President, Policy and Government Affairs: “Our work on the Hospice CARE Act is a unique chance to influence a precious benefit for the better and, by providing our nonprofit hospice providers’ point of view, continue their traditional role as standard bearers for quality care in the sector. We are grateful for Rep. Blumenauer’s commitment to and collaboration in support of modernizing the hospice benefit. We look forward to continuing our constructive work together.”
