Needed Medicare payment reform to improve care and save $$$

[Jmeyerhoeffer (Jamie Meyerhoeffer)]

CMS data shows slightly less than 50% of eligible hospice patients actually get hospice care. Hospice care saves Medicare large amounts of money by keeping terminal patients comfortable and minimizing hospital/ED visits. Yet, hospitals and physicians who do not refer hospice eligible patients and continue spending large amounts of money on those patients do not have any penalty. Add a penalty to stop this. If a hospice eligible patient dies without receiving hospice (currently about 50% of Medicare patients), then clawback ANY hospital or physician payments for that patient for six months prior to the death. This would incentivize hospitals and physicians to appropriately get eligible patients on hospice and save hundreds of millions of dollars in unnecessary end of life spending in the wrong setting. If no penalty is implemented, hospitals and physicians will just keep billing Medicare for exorbitant treatments in the last six months of life when the patient should be on hospice. Act to improve end of life care with hospice while saving $$$.