[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 42, Volume 2]
[Revised as of October 1, 2002]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 42CFR418.309]

[Page 791]
 
                         TITLE 42--PUBLIC HEALTH
 
                             HUMAN SERVICES
 
PART 418--HOSPICE CARE--Table of Contents
 
                   Subpart G--Payment for Hospice Care
 
Sec. 418.309  Hospice cap amount.

    The hospice cap amount is calculated using the following procedures:
    (a) The cap amount is $6,500 per year and is adjusted for inflation 
or deflation for cap years that end after October 1, 1984, by using the 
percentage change in the medical care expenditure category of the 
Consumer Price Index (CPI) for urban consumers that is published by the 
Bureau of Labor Statistics. This adjustment is made using the change in 
the CPI from March 1984 to the fifth month of the cap year. The cap year 
runs from November 1 of each year until October 31 of the following 
year.
    (b) Each hospice's cap amount is calculated by the intermediary by 
multiplying the adjusted cap amount determined in paragraph (a) of this 
section by the number of Medicare beneficiaries who elected to receive 
hospice care from that hospice during the cap period. For purposes of 
this calculation, the number of Medicare beneficiaries includes--
    (1) Those Medicare beneficiaries who have not previously been 
included in the calculation of any hospice cap and who have filed an 
election to receive hospice care, in accordance with Sec. 418.24, from 
the hospice during the period beginning on September 28 (35 days before 
the beginning of the cap period) and ending on September 27 (35 days 
before the end of the cap period).
    (2) In the case in which a beneficiary has elected to receive care 
from more than one hospice, each hospice includes in its number of 
Medicare beneficiaries only that fraction which represents the portion 
of a patient's total stay in all hospices that was spent in that 
hospice. (The hospice can obtain this information by contacting the 
intermediary.)