Hospice and palliative care leaders joined aging services organizations urging Congress to extend the suspension of automatic Medicare payment cuts until the end of this year.
In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and other congressional leaders, the National Association for Home Care & Hospice, the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, the National Partnership for Home Healthcare & Hospice Innovation and LeadingAge asked Congress to continue waiving the payment cuts, which are scheduled to go into effect April 1.
Home health and hospice agencies, in particular, continue to face financial pressure from the COVID-19 public health emergency, the organizations said.
“The ongoing PHE continues to impose financial pressures that impact access to care, including but not limited to: unprecedented labor expenses, high costs for personal protective equipment and other supplies, and lowered revenues due to limitations on in-person fundraisers and limited patronage of thrift stores, both of which typically provide significant revenue to many nonprofit hospices in particular,” the letter stated.
The 2% Medicare sequestration cuts have been on hold since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to help healthcare providers, including home health and hospice agencies, deal with the financial fallout from the pandemic. Last December, Congress and the Biden administration extended the moratorium on the cuts until April 1 and reduced the cuts to 1% between April and June 30, 2022. They also stopped the 4% statutory Pay-As-You-Go sequester from taking effect until early next year.
The organizations also asked for continued flexibility in providing hospice eligibility recertification through telehealth visits, rather than face-to-face meetings, for two years beyond the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency.
