New Data to Increase Transparency on Medicare Hospice Payments

On October 6, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a privacy-protected public data set, the Hospice Utilization and Payment Public Use File (Hospice PUF), which provides information on services provided to Medicare beneficiaries by hospice providers. CMS also released an update to the Market Saturation and Utilization Data Tool.

• The Hospice PUF contains information on utilization, payments, submitted charges, diagnoses, and hospice beneficiary demographics organized by provider and state. The Hospice PUF covers CY 2014 and includes information on 4,025 hospice providers, over 1.3 million hospice beneficiaries, and over $15 billion in Medicare payments.
• The third release of the Market Saturation and Utilization Data Tool includes interactive maps and supporting data sets that show national, state, and county-level provider services and utilization data for three reference periods and the following health service areas: Home health, ambulance, independent diagnostic testing facilities, skilled nursing facilities, and hospice.