Home Health & Hospice Week

But BNAF wage index reduction takes $80 million out of hospices' pockets. Hospices should see a modest increase to their Medicare payment rates for fiscal year 2012, but that increase would be higher if not for the BNAF phase-out. "This proposed rule implements the third year, of a 7-year phase out, of the hospice wage index budget neutrality adjustment factor (BNAF)," the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services notes on its website. Background: CMS originally slated the wage index reduction known as the BNAF phaseout to take place over three years, but stretched that out to seven years when the industry protested about the economic hardship the move would cause. In 2012, 40 percent of the BNAF phase-out will be complete. Then CMS will phase out 15 percent of the BNAF adjustment until it's entirely gone after four more years. Millions lost: Hospices would have seen a 2.8 percent increase, [...]