Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 96 Part 1.djvu/400

 96 STAT. 358 42 USC 1395f.

PUBLIC LAW 97-248—SEPT. 3, 1982 (2)(A) Section 1814(b) of such Act is amended by inserting "(other than a hospice program providing hospice care)" after "The amount paid to any provider of services". (B) Section 1814 of such Act is further amended by adding at the end the following new subsection: PAYMENT FOR HOSPICE CARE

Post, p. 361.

"Cap amount."

"Cap amount."

"(i)(l) Subject to the limitation under paragraph (2) and the provisions of section 1813(a)(4), the amount paid to a hospice program with respect to hospice care for which payment may be made under this part shall be an amount equal to the costs which are reasonable and related to the cost of providing hospice care or which are based on such other tests of reasonableness as the Secretary may prescribe in regulations (including those authorized under section 1861(v)(l)(A)), except that no payment may be for bereavement counseling and no reimbursement may be made for other counseling services (including nutritional and dietary counseling) as separate services. "(2)(A) The amount of payment made under this part for hospice care provided by (or under arrangements made by) a hospice program located in a region (as defined by the Secretary) for an accounting year may not exceed the 'cap amount' for the region for the year (computed under subparagraph (B)) multiplied by the number of medicare beneficiaries in the hospice program in that year (determined under subparagraph (O). "(B) For purposes of subparagraph (A), the 'cap amount' for a region for a year is computed as follows: "(i) The Secretary, using records of the program under this title, shall identify individuals (or a representative sample of such individuals)— "(I) who died during the base period (as defined in clause (v)), "(II) with respect to whom the primary cause of death was cancer, and "(III) who, during the six-month period preceding death, were provided benefits under this title, "(ii) The Secretary shall determine a national average medicare per capita expenditure amount by (I) determining (or estimating) the amount of payments made under this title with respect to services provided to individuals identified in clause (i) during the six months before death, and (II) dividing such amount of payments by the number of such individuals. "(iii) The Secretary, using the best available data, shall then compute a regional average medicare per capita expenditure amount for each region, by adjusting the national average medicare per capita expenditure amount (computed under clause (ii)) to reflect the relative difference between that region's average cost of delivering health care and the national average cost of delivering health care. "(iv) The 'cap amount' for a region for an accounting year is 40 percent of the regional average determined under clause (iii) for that region, increased or decreased by the same percentage as the percentage increase or decrease, respectively, in the medical care expenditure category of the consumer price index for all urban consumers (U.S. city average), published by the

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