Review of Hospice Inpatient and Aggregate Cap Calculations

Hospice care can provide great comfort to beneficiaries, families, and caregivers at the end of a beneficiary's life. To ensure that hospice care does not exceed the cost of conventional medical care at the end of life, Medicare imposes two annual limits to payments made to hospice providers: the inpatient cap and the aggregate cap. The inpatient cap limits the number of days of inpatient care for which Medicare will pay to 20 percent of a hospice's total Medicare patient care days, and a hospice must refund to Medicare any payment amounts in excess of the inpatient cap. The aggregate cap limits the total aggregate payments that any individual hospice can receive in a cap year to an allowable amount based on an annual per-beneficiary cap amount and the number of beneficiaries served. Any amount paid to a hospice for its claims in excess of the aggregate cap is considered an overpayment and must be repaid to Medicare. Medicare administrative contractors (MACs) oversee the cap process and hospices must file their self-determined aggregate cap determination notice with their MAC no later than 5 months after the end of the cap year and remit any overpayment due at that time.

Announced or Revised	Agency	Title	Component	Report Number(s)	Expected Issue Date (FY)
Completed (partial)	Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services	Review of Hospice Inpatient and Aggregate Cap Calculations	Office of Audit Services	W-00-19-35826; W-00-21-35826; A-06-21-08004	2024