Regulators may soon use more relevant data when developing annual updates to the hospice wage index.
Currently, CMS uses hospital wage index data to make these changes. Officials met with stakeholders in a Technical Expert Panel on Sept. 10, 2025, to discuss potentially creating a hospice wage index formula that uses hospice staffing data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and hospice employment info shared in claims and cost reports.
A letter in response from the National Alliance for Care at Home, LeadingAge and the National Partnership for Healthcare and Hospice Innovation challenged CMS to address some concerns with the BLS data. For example, there are key hospice roles missing in the computation.
“While we support the conceptual move toward a more hospice-relevant wage adjustment methodology, the (proposed) BLS-based approach requires significant refinement to accurately reflect hospice labor costs and service patterns,” the letter notes.