Hospice agencies receive $142.91 per day from Medicare for services provided to Medicare beneficiaries. Payment is the same no matter the level of care that might be required for patients with different needs.
An article in the University of Pennsylvania’s MedPage Today says that more for-profit hospice agencies are being created and they tend to serve patients who may require less intensive care – resulting in more profit for the agency.
About 84% of all hospice patients are paid for by Medicare, and some hospice advocates are calling for hospice organizations to be reimbursed based on the intensity of care they provide to patients.
