One-Year Moratorium on Cuts in Medicare Hospice
Funding Passed in Stimulus Bill
Hospice advocates have been trying to overturn 2008
regulation by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to reduce
funding
Feb. 20, 2009 - The nations hospice community
claimed a significant victory this week when President Barack Obama
signed the stimulus bill into law. It includes a one-year moratorium on
cuts in Medicare funding for the more than 4,700 hospice programs
nationwide.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
ensures that access to quality and compassionate end-of-life care will
be maintained for the more than 1.4 million patients and their family
caregivers who seek hospice each year.
Over the past year, the National Hospice and
Palliative Care Organization, the Alliance for Care at the End of Life,
and hospice advocates from across the country have been working to
overturn a 2008 regulation issued by the Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services, which eliminates a key component of the Medicare
hospice reimbursement formula known as the budget neutrality adjustment
factor (BNAF).
The phased funding cut would have taken $135
million away from quality and compassionate end-of-life care in fiscal
year 2009, and has already jeopardized the survival of many hospice
programs, particularly smaller, more rural ones. Approximately 3,000
hospice provider jobs were threatened to be cut this year, with deeper
job losses expected in fiscal year 2010 as the funding cut enters its
second year.
The effort to halt the hospice rate cuts has been
underway since the Bush Administration announced its intention to
eliminate the BNAF in its FY09 budget
NHPCO and its partners within the hospice community
have been engaged in an aggressive grassroots program, mobilizing
patients and their families, professionals, physicians, nurses, home
health aides, spiritual and bereavement counselors, and volunteers, that
has resulted in tens of thousands of calls, emails and letters being
sent to elected officials in the House and Senate. As a result, a
bipartisan group of lawmakers worked together to have the hospice
provision included in the economic stimulus package approved by
Congress, and signed into law by President Obama.
From the start, our efforts have been about
ensuring access to high-quality and compassionate end-of-life care for
Americans coping with life-limiting illness. We thank our supporters at
the grassroots level and in Congress for securing a one-year moratorium
on cuts in hospice funding. Its important that we continue to build
upon the momentum that we have now to ensure that patient access is
protected in future years by permanently overturning these devastating
rate cuts, said J. Donald Schumacher, president and CEO of NHPCO.
Despite strong, bipartisan opposition in Congress,
CMS began implementation of the final rule on October 1, 2008.
If allowed to move forward in FY10, this misguided
rule will slash hospice payments by approximately $2.18 billion in the
first five years, despite the fact that hospice has been found to be a
cost saver for the Medicare program, Schumacher noted.
A 2007 independent Duke University study found that
hospice reduced Medicare costs by an average of $2,300 per hospice
patient, amounting to a total of more than $2 billion in savings in a
single year.
With the one-year moratorium in place, NHPCO, the
Alliance for Care at the End of Life, and Hospice Advocates will now
turn their attention to working with the new administration and Congress
on permanently overturning the CMS rule to eliminate the BNAF.
NHPCO leadership are meeting with CMS on February
19 to discuss the subsequent process necessary to address the one-year
moratorium.
Keep up with the latest news for senior citizens, baby
boomers
Feb. 20, 2009 - The nations hospice community
claimed a significant victory this week when President Barack Obama
signed the stimulus bill into law. It includes a one-year moratorium on
cuts in Medicare funding for the more than 4,700 hospice programs
nationwide.