CMS Extends Hospice, Home Health Enrollment Freeze Six Months
CMS is extending its nationwide moratorium on new Medicare enrollments for hospice and home health agencies for another six months, saying in a Nov. 12 news release that conditions prompting the original May 13 freeze have not sufficiently improved. The extension continues to bar new Medicare enrollment applications and certain changes in majority ownership nationwide, though CMS will now allow currently enrolled providers to add new practice locations, which the original moratorium had prohibited. Existing enrollments and ongoing services are not affected. CMS cited an October enforcement operation in California that revoked 145 providers tied to more than $703 million in Medicare and Medicaid payments, and noted related changes in the CY2027 Home Health Prospective Payment System final rule finalized Nov. 4, which allow retroactive enrollment revocations and expand grounds for denying or revoking enrollment.