Medicare continues to focus on payment for medications in hospice and for “getting the payment right”. In this recently published USA TODAY article, Medicare officials discuss housing all care provided to a patient electing hospice care under the hospice benefit, rather than risk duplicative payments for both Part A (hospice) and Part D (non-hospice) claims. According to the Department of Health and Human Services’ inspector general, more than $33 million was paid by Medicare to prescription drug plans in 2009 that should have been covered by the hospice benefit. CMS reiterated this stance in the FY 2016 Proposed Hospice Rule released April 30, 2015 that can be viewed here. (Note: this is a temporary site that will be changed when published in the Federal Register)
Link to original article (4/2015)
