The FY 2025 Hospice Wage Index, Payment Rate Update and Quality Reporting Requirements Proposed Rule is under review at the Office of Management & Budget.
 
It’s the final stage of review before CMS releases the proposed rule, likely in late March. The 2024 proposed rule was released on March 31.
 
Similar to changes in the 2024 hospice rule finalized last summer, as well as the home health rule finalized in November, the 2025 rule could include regulatory updates as CMS continues to focus on fraud and abuse in hospice.
 
There also may be some quality reporting changes. The industry has been waiting for the new Hospice Outcomes and Patient Evaluation (HOPE) assessment tool, but CMS has not provided an update beyond noting that it will be rolled out in future rulemaking.
 
Once released the HOPE tool is expected to provide standardized data that better reflects a patient’s journey through hospice care.
 
CMS has also been looking at ways to incorporate health equity measures into home health and hospice quality reporting. A technical expert panel (TEP) report was released last May, but we haven’t seen rule changes to reflect the TEP findings, yet.