August 4, 2008
CMS-1548-F:
The Hospice Wage Index for Fiscal Year 2009; Final Rule went on display at the Federal Register today, July 31, 2008. As part of provision of this final rule, CMS is phasing-out and eventually eliminating an adjustment, the budget neutrality adjustment factor (BNAF), to the hospice wage index that was put into place over 10 years ago to help hospices through a transitional period to a new wage index. The combined effects of a 25% reduction to the BNAF in FY 2009 and a 3.6% market basket update are estimated to increase payment to hospices in FY 2009 by 2.5%. For more information, see the Fact Sheet on the CMS site.
To view the proposed rule, see the Spotlight section of the Hospice Center web page: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/center/hospice.asp.
