Hospice & Home Health News 2026August7
Analysis: FY2027 Hospice Wage Index Final Rule
LeadingAge recaps in this
article for members critical pieces of the Fiscal Year 2027 Hospice Wage Index final rule and offers analysis of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ decisions to move forward with the Services and Spending Variation Index and the addendum requirement for all patients.
CMS Releases Non-Compliance Letters for Quality Reporting Programs
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released notifications on August 5 notifying providers that were determined to be out of compliance with Quality Reporting Program (QRP) requirements for CY 2025, which will affect their FY 2027 Annual Payment Update (APU). Non-compliance notifications were sent to providers’ My Reports folders in the Internet Quality Improvement and Evaluation System (iQIES), for Hospices and SNFs on August 5 and are additionally being distributed by the Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs). Facilities that receive a letter of non-compliance may submit a request for reconsideration to CMS via email no later than 11:59 pm, September 4, 2026.
If you receive a notice of non-compliance and would like to request a reconsideration, see the instructions in your notice of non-compliance and on the appropriate QRP webpage:
SNF Quality Reporting Reconsideration and Exception & Extension
Join the National Healthcare at Home Best Practices Study
LeadingAge is excited to announce the launch of the second National Healthcare at Home Best Practices Study led by HealthPivots. As a study sponsor, LeadingAge encourages home health and hospice agencies to participate in the study to ensure a strong showing of nonprofit, mission driven providers. This is a valuable opportunity to benchmark your agency's practices against peers nationally and gain insights that can help shape future strategy. We encourage you to sign up today to ensure your agency doesn't miss out on the results. For agencies who already signed up for the study, you should have received a survey link via email. Links and reminders are sent every Tuesday, so please check your inbox (and spam folder) if you haven't seen yours. Those who did not previously sign up can Sign Up Here, and a survey link will be sent to you. The deadline to participate is September 15. Only participating agencies will receive the aggregate results from the study
Tip Sheet: Proposed CY 2027 Home Health Comments
To support members in developing comments on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) calendar year (CY) 2027 Home Health proposed rule (CMS-1844-P), LeadingAge has developed this resource, which includes tips and links to additional information related to the proposed home health provisions. NOTE: In addition to home health specific proposals, the CY 2027 Home Health proposed rule included substantial changes to Medicare enrollment for all provider types. For comment guidance on those, please refer to a separate, soon-to-be published document, “Tips for Submitting Comments on Medicare Enrollment Provisions.”
Home Health Trend Reports Updated
The new Home Health Trend Reports are now available in the LeadingAge Report Portal (https://leadingage.org/leadingage-report-portal/)
Here is your weekly Home Health Weekly Recap from National.
Here is your weekly
Hospice Weekly Recap
from National.










