Sponsors (7)
The bill strengthens oversight, transparency, and temporary payment support for hospice care—improving program integrity, quality, and respite access—while increasing Medicare spending, adding regulatory complexity, and creating short‑term access and operational risks for some providers and patients.
Hospice providers: will receive substantially higher temporary payments for routine home care (400% of the FY2027 rate from Oct 1, 2027–Sept 30, 2032), increasing revenue available to deliver home hospice services.
Medicare program and taxpayers: stronger oversight, ownership transparency, prepayment review, audits, and a technical expert panel will improve program integrity, reduce fraud/improper payments, and make hospice payment calculations more accurate.
Medicare beneficiaries and caregivers: enhanced quality controls (more frequent surveys, medical director requirements, face‑to‑face recertification) plus required hospital discharge listings for hospice/home health should improve care quality and transitions to post‑hospital supports.
Taxpayers and the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund: the large temporary increase in routine home care payments (400% of FY2027 rate) will raise Medicare spending and put additional pressure on federal finances.
Medicare beneficiaries (especially local/rural patients): temporary moratoria on new enrollments and locations could limit the availability of new hospice programs and reduce local access to care.
Hospice providers and CMS: expanded prepayment reviews, revalidations, reporting, audits, wage-adjusted caps, and new payment clauses create substantial administrative complexity, compliance costs, potential payment delays, and systems upgrades.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Places temporary nationwide moratoria on new Medicare hospice enrollments/programs, increases oversight and prepayment review, and changes hospice payment formulas including a temporary higher home‑care payment.
Official title: To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to ensure the integrity of hospice care furnished under the Medicare program, and for other purposes.
Introduced March 17, 2026 by Linda T. Sánchez · Last progress March 17, 2026
Creates temporary nationwide moratoria on new Medicare hospice enrollments and new hospice locations, adds extended prepayment review authority for certain hospices, and changes hospice payment rules including temporary higher payments for specified home hospice care. The bill requires rapid HHS rulemaking and reporting, permits limited exceptions for areas with insufficient hospice access, and revises statutory payment language and formulas to adjust rates for non‑routine and routine home hospice services over coming years.