Regulator Updates for Hospice

The payment rate for hospice care in 2024 will increase by 3.1%, meaning hospice providers will see about $780 million more compared to 2023. This bump is based on a standard increase for inpatient services – called the market basket increase – which is 3.3%, but reduced slightly (0.2%) to account for expected gains in productivity.

If you’re wondering how this change came about, it was part of a legal update from recent legislation, specifically the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021. This law also made another important change: hospices that don’t report their quality data correctly will face a bigger penalty. Starting in 2024, if hospices don’t meet these reporting standards, they’ll see a reduction of 4% from their payment update. In real terms, that means instead of getting an increased payment rate, they could actually have a payment rate that’s 0.9% lower than the year before. For hospices that miss reporting their data, the expected 3.1% increase turns into a nearly 1% decrease because of this new, stricter rule.