Hospice News January 13, 2026
Some stakeholders in the hospice space are seeking reforms to the hospice wage index.
The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) adjusts daily hospice payments for each level of care to account for differences in wage rates among markets. Each level of care has a labor share and a non-labor share; those amounts differ across each level of care, reflecting the estimated proportion of costs that is attributable to wages, according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission.
The labor share of the base payment amount is adjusted by the hospice wage index for the location in which care is furnished and the result is added to the non-labor portion. To calculate the wage index, CMS uses the prior...
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