Advocacy Update: CMS Issues 6-Month Moratorium on Medicare Home Health & Hospice Enrollment

Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a six-month nationwide moratorium on enrolling new home health and hospice agencies, the administration’s latest action to curb fraud, waste, and abuse. ​

While this moratorium doesn’t apply to home care agencies, it underscores an important advocacy priority for HCAOA. The association remains focused on encouraging data-driven oversight and avoiding actions that penalize high-quality providers essential to the continuum of care. 

As regulatory pressure increases, HCAOA continues to emphasize the distinction between home health and home care. Our members provide essential personal care and support services that are structurally different from the billing environments under the most federal scrutiny. 

This latest development follows HCAOA’s recent formal recommendations to CMS. In those comments, we urged the administration to utilize data-driven, targeted enforcement rather than broad mandates. 

HCAOA’s government relations team is building on the momentum of our successful National Home Care Advocacy Day in April, where members discussed common-sense program integrity measures with legislative staff. We will continue discussing this issue with the administration and congressional leaders and show that agency-based home care provides a model for program integrity because of its highly accountable and auditable care delivery structure. 

HCAOA will continue to monitor these developments and provide updates as more information becomes available. ​