After substantial litigation over CMS’s method for counting Medicare beneficiaries in its hospice aggregate cap calculation, CMS has now proposed to revise the hospice cap regulation to include proportional counting methodology.

On April 28, 2011, CMS proposed changes to hospice cap calculations for FY 2012 and beyond, as well as changes to the hospice face-to-face encounter requirements. The proposed rule also sets forth how CMS proposes to implement a hospice quality reporting program. The proposed rule was published in the Federal Register on Monday May 9 and can be found here (see full alert below for link). Although the May 9 Federal Register indicated that CMS would accept comments on the proposed rule until July 8, 2011, CMS later published a correction indicating the comment period expires on June 27, 2011.