Sponsors (6)
Introduced March 17, 2026 by Linda T. Sánchez · Last progress March 17, 2026
The bill strengthens oversight, transparency, and temporary payment increases to reduce fraud and bolster hospice services (including new respite payments), but does so at the cost of moratoria, greater administrative burden, possible service disruptions, and increased Medicare spending that could unevenly affect access in some areas.
Medicare beneficiaries and taxpayers: tighter enrollment rules, ownership transparency, prepayment review, audits, and fraud investigations are likely to reduce improper payments and block fraudulent or low‑quality hospice providers, protecting program integrity and saving money.
Medicare beneficiaries: increased quality and accountability through more frequent surveys, medical director requirements, face‑to‑face recertification, and expert panels should improve hospice care standards and oversight.
Hospice programs and patients/caregivers: temporary higher payments (400% of the FY2027 routine home care rate for a limited period) will boost hospice revenue capacity to deliver home services and support operations.
Medicare beneficiaries and local communities: temporary moratoria on new hospice enrollments and locations may reduce or delay local access to hospice care, especially where providers seek to open or expand.
Hospice programs and CMS: the package adds substantial administrative complexity (prepayment reviews, revalidations, reporting, audits, wage‑adjusted caps, changing payment methodologies and unresolved statutory placeholders), increasing compliance costs, systems upgrades, and transitional uncertainty.
Taxpayers and the Medicare program: the large temporary increase in routine home care payments (400% of FY2027 rate for a multi‑year period) will raise Medicare spending and could put additional pressure on the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund and federal budget.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Imposes temporary nationwide moratoria on new Medicare hospice enrollments/locations, targets prepayment review for some hospices, and revises hospice payment formulas including a temporary large increase for certain home-care services.
Creates temporary, nationwide restrictions on new Medicare hospice enrollments and new hospice locations, imposes targeted prepayment review for some hospices, and changes how Medicare pays for certain hospice home-care services. The bill requires the HHS Secretary to publish the moratoria and implement rules quickly, allows limited exceptions for areas with insufficient hospice access, and directs multi-year temporary payment adjustments including a high temporary rate for certain routine home-care services during a defined window.