Medicare Expands Pilot Program Allowing For Concurrent Coverage Of Hospice & Curative Care

On July 20, 2015, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced it had expanded the scope of a pilot program testing the Medicare Care Choices Model that allows Medicare beneficiaries admitted to hospice services to continue to receive curative care. Outside the scope of this pilot, the Medicare hospice benefit is limited to beneficiaries diagnosed with terminal conditions who have estimated life expectancy of six months or less; to receive the hospice benefit, the beneficiary must agree to forgo curative care. Initially, CMS anticipated that 30 hospice provider organizations would participate over three years. The pilot has been . . .