Hospice Industry News: October 2026

This month’s visual briefing covers the election statement addendum requirement now in effect, CMS’s HOPE v1.03 materials, corrected FY2027 payment files, a GAO payment analysis, and the scheduled end of the nationwide enrollment moratorium.

What to watch

• Build the five-calendar-day delivery and three-calendar-day update windows for the election addendum into admission workflows.
• Confirm corrected FY2027 wage indexes and payment tables in locality-level billing and pricer setups.
• Recheck CMS notices before making expansion or ownership decisions tied to the moratorium’s scheduled Nov. 13 end.

Context: GAO’s $7.6 billion figure is an adjusted comparison for a selected 2024 beneficiary cohort using home-health per-visit rates. It is not a finalized CMS payment policy. Moratorium status in this briefing reflects public reporting available October 30, 2026.

Sources

1. CMS, “Initial Implementation of the Mandatory Hospice Election Statement Addendum,” October 1, 2026.
2. CMS, Hospice QRP Announcements and Spotlight, HOPE v1.03 update posted October 6, 2026.
3. CMS, Transmittal R13976CP, FY2027 hospice payment rates and wage-index correction.
4. U.S. Government Accountability Office, GAO-26-107585, Medicare Hospice: Action Needed to Pay More Efficiently for Routine Home Care.
5. CMS, Provider Enrollment Moratoria.
6. Medical Daily, “Medicare Freeze on New Hospice and Home Health Agencies Expires November 13 as CMS Stays Silent,” October 29, 2026.

Aether Insights provides general industry analysis, not clinical or legal advice.