Eli's Hospice Insider

Published on Fri Jun 17, 2011 PDF

Use the info to make cap appeals decisions.

Hospices have a lot of decisions to make this year, including how they want their cap amount calculated. Now hospice providers can make an informed decision on the matter.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has released the 2011 hospice aggregate cap amount early this year, and it's $24,527.69. "To assist the hospice industry in planning and budgeting, CMS is making the aggregate cap amount for the 2011 cap year available in advance of the formal CMS administrative notice," which is scheduled for this summer, the agency says on its website.

"We have included information about how we calculate the aggregate cap amount so that hospices can compute the amount themselves in the future if they so desire," CMS adds.

CMS's early release of the cap also will help hospices "determine if they might benefit from CMS's ruling issued on April 14 explaining the manner in which the agency will address properly pending appeals related to proportional allocation of beneficiaries across cap years," the National Association for Home Care & Hospice says (see Eli's Hospice Insider, Vol. 4, No. 6, p. 38).