Hospice & Home Health News 2026June5

LeadingAge Report Portal Now Updated with Hospice Data. 

CMS Relaunching Hospice PEPPER Report in June 2026.

The Program for Evaluating Payment Patterns Electronic Report (PEPPER) is an excel file issued to individual hospice providers summarizing provider-specific Medicare data statistics for target areas determined by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) often associated with Medicare improper payments due to utilization issues. In January 2024, CMS announced a temporary pause to the PEPPER reports in order to update the program and reporting system. Over the last several months, CMS has released updated PEPPER reports for other

Medicare provider settings such as critical access hospitals and short-term acute care hospitals. In an email to LeadingAge on May 26, CMS shared that the Hospice PEPPER will be available through the PEPPER Portal in early June 2026. CMS is asking providers prepare for this release by following the outlined instructions to ensure access to the online PEPPER Portal:

How to Download Your PEPPER: Staff End User (SEU) Access

The Hospice PEPPER will be available through the PEPPER Portal to Authorized Officials (AOs), Access Managers (AMs), and Staff End Users (SEUs) who have been granted the PEPPER business function in the CMS Identity & Access Management (I&A) System.

To become a Staff End User (SEU) and access your organization’s PEPPER: 

• Log in to the CMS I&A System using your existing NPPES or PECOS credentials.
• Request the PEPPER business function under your organization.
• Obtain approval from your organization’s AO or AM (only AOs and AMs can approve SEU access).
• Once approved, log in to the PEPPER Portal using the same credentials to download your organization’s PEPPER.

Authorized Officials and Access Managers can find step-by-step instructions in the I&A Quick Reference Guide and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).

If users need help identifying their AO or AM, or have questions about their request, they may contact the PECOS External User Services (EUS) Help Desk

The LeadingAge Report Portal has been updated according to the latest data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on hospice providers. Hospice members can access their Trend Reports based on the Care Compare quarterly refresh that includes updates to HIS quality measures, Hospice CAHPS measures and the bi-yearly Star Rating refresh. Of note, this is the first quarter of data since the Hospice CAHPS survey changers took effect, and the national response rate increased by 1%. We are hopeful to see additional response growth in future quarters. LeadingAge members can access their updated reports on the Report Portal using their LeadingAge login.

LeadingAge Submits Comments on FY2027 Hospice Wage Index Proposed Rule.

On June 1, LeadingAge submitted our comments on the Fiscal Year 2027 Hospice Wage Index Proposed Rule. Our press release on the rule comments is available here. The 30-page letter goes into detail on our concerns regarding the nonhospice spending sections of the rule. LeadingAge understands CMS’s concerns with the continuing increases to nonhospice spending. However, as we share in our executive summary "we are gravely concerned that the proposals in this rule will not address the root problems of nonhospice spending and instead will add additional burden to hospices and have a chilling impact on access to services." This direction was based on the tremendous amount of feedback we received from our members who were concerned with being held accountable for other providers billing Medicare when they know a patient is on hospice. To that end, LeadingAge offered an alternative proposal to CMS's proposal for a universal election statement addendum for every hospice enrollment. Instead, LeadingAge recommended CMS eliminate the existing modifier loophole in the billing for services outside of the hospice benefit. This would require changes to the Common Working File to reject any claim without the GV or GW modifier and requirements that providers billing GW or GV must include a copy of the addendum from the hospice, which they can obtain right now according to CMS subregulatory guidance without requiring an addendum to be signed by every single patient. In addition to comments on nonhospice spending, we included extensive comments on the wage index and community based palliative care RFIs based on member feedback.

LeadingAge Supported Hospice and Home Health Bill Advances Out of House Committee.

On May 21, the House Ways and Means Committee marked up eight bills including the "Protecting Seniors and Stopping Fraudsters Act." (HR 8883) which was introduced on May 19 by Representative Beth Van Duyne (R-TX). The bill was reported positively out of the Committee for consideration by the full House (aka it passed out of Committee) by a vote of 27-16. The vote was bipartisan; 3 Democrats voted yes on the bill. During the markup, Representative Linda Sanchez (D-CA) who introduced the Hospice Care, Accountability, Reform, and Enforcement (CARE) Act of 2026 along with Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), made several comments and asked questions underscoring differences between the two bills, particularly focused on the lack of payment reform policies in Representative Van Duyne’s bill. Representative Van Duyne emphasized the targeted nature of the policies in her bill and the desire to not increase burdens on legitimate providers. On May 20, LeadingAge submitted a letter for the record supporting this bill. Our letter underscores the provisions in Rep Van Duyne's bill that align with previously recommended reforms and that we support. We also underscore further reforms that are needed that align with our policy priorities particularly related to payment reforms and benefit enhancements, many of which were included in Representative Sanchez's bill. LeadingAge is glad to see this bill advance and appreciates the commitment on both sides of the aisle to reforms to ensure high quality hospice and home health care and target enforcement to bad actors.

OMB Receives CY2027 Home Health Proposed Rule. 

On May 11, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) received the CY2027 Home Health Proposed Rule. This is the first step in federal review of rulemaking. LeadingAge anticipates this rule will be posted late June to early July. Based on the title the rule will contain additional updates for the Home Infusion Therapy program. Link to the regulatory review page here.