CMS issues hospice benefit guidance for terminally sick kids

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released a guidance Thursday regarding a health overhaul mandate that state Medicaid programs allow terminally ill kids to get curative treatment even if they take hospice benefits, The Hill's Healthwatch Blog reports. "The new rules apply to both state Medicaid programs and Children's Health Insurance Programs (CHIP) operating as Medicaid expansions." States will be required to issue paperwork certifying both options are given concurrently, said Cindy Mann, federal Medicaid director, in a letter to state health officials. "States with separate CHIP programs are still free not to cover hospice services, but if they do, they must now offer curative treatment concurrently" (Pecquet, 9/9).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.