Don’t let CMS publish list of lowest-performing hospices, Alliance tells lawmakers

Don’t let CMS publish list of lowest-performing hospices, Alliance tells lawmakers 
McKnights Home Care; by Liza Berger; 11/26/24 
Acting on its plan to keep the hospice Special Focus Program in the spotlight until the end of the year, the National Alliance for Care at Home has sent congressional leaders a letter urging them to remedy the grading system for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ program targeting underperforming hospices. “CMS is on the verge of publishing a list of what they claim will be poor-performing hospices based on this flawed grading system,” Ken Albert, president and CEO of Andwell Health Partners and chair of the Alliance, wrote in a Nov. 22 letter to chairmen and ranking members of House and Senate finance committees. “When you see this list, you should view it skeptically, because CMS will have committed a grave error that risks steering patients away from reputable hospices that may be on the list and toward providers that — because they may not have been surveyed at all — could be low-quality or completely fraudulent.”