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02/12/2020

House Version of Hospice Bill Marked Up This Week

As anticipated, key members of the House Ways & Means Committee (Representative Jimmy Panetta (D-CA), and Tom Reed (R-NY)) introduced legislation this week to address concerns regarding hospice compliance with quality and safety standards under the Hospice Conditions of Participation. The legislation – H.R. 5821(the Helping Our Senior Population in Comfort Environments Act (HOSPICE Act)) was developed in response to the July 2019 Office of Inspector General (OIG) reports that identified several concerns in the hospice program related to the survey process and quality of care. LeadingAge and its partners VNAA/ElevatingHOME worked in coalition with other hospice stakeholders, including the National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization and the National Association for Home Care & Hospice,  to formulate joint recommendations for the Congressional staff that worked on the legislation, many of which impacted the final version of this bill.  In response to stakeholder input, an earlier draft of H.R. 5821 has been revised to include provisions aimed at improving the survey process through training and testing of hospice surveyors and to require that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and states develop programs to measure and reduce inconsistency in the application of survey findings.  

The following is a summary of the legislation’s provisions:

Survey Frequency

Transparency

Improvement in the Quality and Consistency of Hospice Surveys

Funding

Special Focus Program

Enforcement

Remedies

Creation of Toll Free Hotline

Quality Reporting

Government Accountability Office (GAO) Report on Remedies

In response to the legislation, NAHC noted that in its work with members of both houses of Congress NAHC has emphasized the need for any legislative reform to:

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