Hospice & Home Health News 2026Mar13

CMS Forum: HOPE Tool Updates

Earlier in February and prior to this February 26 forum–the first hosted by the agency in over a year–LeadingAge had shared specific concerns with CMS and their contractor on the HOPE tool implementation process and needed guidance changes. Read more here.

LeadingAge participates in roundtable on hospice

On March 4, LeadingAge participated in a small roundtable on the Hospice Care, Accountability, Reform, and Enforcement (CARE) Act previously introduced in the 118th Congress by Representative Earl Blumenauer. The roundtable was with a Member of Congress and Congressional staff from both chambers who plan to reintroduce the bill. LeadingAge expressed support for a number of provisions in the bill, particularly those we led on developing around expanded respite care. The bill contains other strong provisions including the potential for some payments for services like dialysis, radiation, and blood transfusions to ensure access to palliation via these services while receiving hospice care. LeadingAge also highlighted that there are components of the bill that we believe still need improvement, revision, or removal which the staff and Member were open to. LeadingAge will continue to work to provide feedback on this legislation going forward. Hospice members should attend the LeadingAge Hospice Network on March 10 to provide more feedback on the bill.

LeadingAge Meets with CMS on Hospice Program Integrity

On March 3, LeadingAge staff joined staff from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and other associations to discuss the implementation of the provisional period of enhanced oversight (PPEO) for new hospices which expanded in December 2025 to include Georgia and Ohio along with the original four states of California, Nevada, Texas, and Arizona. As part of the recent appropriations package which passed in February, guardrails were added to the use of telehealth to conduct the hospice face-to-face. These included disallowing hospices undergoing PPEO from utilizing telehealth to conduct face-to-face. LeadingAge and others requested clear communication from CMS to both providers and Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) that these provisions will not be enforced until additional operational information is available. Participants noted concerns about when these guardrails would be operationalized and how providers would be notified if they were disallowed from telehealth due to an "active" PPEO. We also shared concerns that some information currently on the PECOS enrollment sites states that nurse practitioners, who can conduct face-to-face visits, are not required to enroll in PECOS. We also shared concerns with the how different MACs are operationalizing the PPEO particularly with transparency and communications to providers and the public on the process. Additionally, we shared our concerns that provider affiliations may be triggering additional billing revocations without hospices going through the PPEO process. CMS did clarify that during if a hospice is sent to CMS for further review by a MAC, the Center for Program Integrity has staff clinicians conduct record review before any actions are taken regarding revocation. LeadingAge will continue to communicate to CMS our concerns regarding the PPEO and make recommendations on how to implement the guardrails for face-to-face telehealth flexibilities. 

Here is your weekly  Home Health Weekly Recap from National.

Here is your weekly  Hospice Weekly Recap from National.