Hospice Deficiencies Pose Risks to Medicare Beneficiaries

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) has identified significant vulnerabilities in the Medicare hospice benefit and found that hospices did not always provide needed services to beneficiaries and sometimes provided poor quality care. Hospice care can provide great comfort to beneficiaries, their families, and other caregivers at the end of a beneficiary's life. To promote compliance and quality of care, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) relies on State agencies and accrediting organizations to survey hospices. As part of this process, surveyors review clinical records, visit patients, and cite hospices with deficiencies when they do not meet Medicare requirements. Hospices must be surveyed at least once every 3 years. Surveyors also investigate complaints. This report provides a first-time look at hospice deficiencies nation-wide in that it includes both hospices that were surveyed by State agencies and those surveyed by accrediting organizations. This report is the first in a two-part series. The companion report addresses beneficiary harm in depth.