Regulacje i polityka gospodarcza · 22/11/2002

Medicare Program; Hospice Care Amendments

This proposed rule would revise existing regulations that govern coverage and payment for hospice care under the Medicare program. These revisions are required by the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (BBA), the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Balanced Budget Refinement Act of 1999 (BBRA), and the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Benefits Improvement and Protection Act of 2000 (BIPA). The BBA made changes to the time frame for completion of a physician's certification for admission of a patient; the duration of benefit periods; the requirement that hospices make certain services available on a 24-hour basis; the required core services; the coverage of services specified in a patient's plan of care; and the payment of claims according to area. The BBA also established hospice payment rates for Federal fiscal years 1998 through 2002. BBRA amended those rates. BIPA further amended those rates and clarified the physician certification rule. This rule would also add to existing regulations certain established Medicare hospice policies that currently are available only in policy memoranda. These policies clarify the regulations regarding the content of the certification of terminal illness and the