Requires more frequent inspections and tougher enrollment screening for Medicare hospice programs and home health agencies, and cuts payments for those that do not submit required quality data.

• Requires surveys at least once every 12 months during the 36 months after a hospice program or home health agency is newly enrolled, changes ownership, or reactivates billing privileges.
• Requires more frequent surveys of providers that fail to submit quality data or show aberrant patterns, and starting fiscal year 2029 reduces payments by 15 percentage points for providers that do not submit quality data, with up to 30 extra days for good-faith filers.
• Requires fingerprinting of administrators and medical directors, and proof of comprehensive liability insurance, for providers at extreme risk of fraud, and directs the Secretary to assess accreditation bodies and report annually on program integrity activities.
• Requires written notice within 15 days to beneficiaries who elect hospice care, funded at $6 million per year, and extends the hospice cap adjustment through 2036.

• Energy and Commerce Committee (House)
• Ways and Means Committee (House)

Health