MedPAC Releases Report on Alternative Hospice Payments for High-Cost Palliative Care

On June 15, 2026, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) released its yearly research report to Congress, which includes a chapter titled, Access to hospice and certain complex palliative services for beneficiaries with end-stage renal disease or cancer. Unlike its March 2026 report, this report focuses on long-term research projects of the Commission as well as some Congressionally mandated reports.

In Chapter 5 of the report, MedPAC describes potential approaches to improve the accuracy of Medicare's hospice payments and addresses potential concerns about access to certain complex palliative services for hospice beneficiaries. LeadingAge has reported on this research throughout the last year. The report highlights three potential approaches to modify hospice payment policy to account for the high cost of some palliative care services including high-cost outlier payments, add-on payment for complex palliative services, and a voluntary transitional program for Medicare payments. The report goes into additional detail on a high-cost outlier payment describing the Medicare precedents and potential approaches for hospice. During the March 2026 MedPAC meeting, which reviewed the draft chapter before publication, most commissioners favored the outlier payment approach.

LeadingAge will provide a detailed analysis of this chapter and others in the full report in the days ahead.