National Federal Moratorium Announced for Home Health and Hospices!

Written By Annette Lee

CMS announced that beginning today, May 13th, 2026, no new home health or hospice agencies will be enrolled in Medicare for at least the next six months. CMS may extend this.

  • This does NOT directly impact currently enrolled agencies.

  • CMS IS still allowing the telehealth face-to-face flexibility for hospice recertifications, despite this federal moratorium (per CMS FAQ)

  • This does NOT impact agencies that are pending, if the MAC already has your application.

  • This does NOT impact CHOWs (unless the CHOW is occurring within the 36th month rule- and then they are considered a "new enrollee".)

So, for those of us that this does not impact, this is our opportunity. For you, this is not a restriction- but refinement. (To quote a dear colleague of mine). This is CMS pausing- figuring out what to do next... and then there will be more audits, surveys, etc. So, this is our time to assess ourselves. Ensure you are audit and survey ready. Ensure you are following your mission- and use your QAPI process to constantly improve your organization's quality and compliance! This actually just increases the value of your organization-- so THANK YOU for being the "good actors". 

Personally, I currently have the honor of seeing my dad go through this journey- he was enrolled in hospice just last week. It has been AMAZING to see how a great hospice "shows up" and anticipates every need... more to come on that next week..

CMS has issued separate rules for HH and Hospice, and an FAQ document. They are linked below for your reference:

See the Rule for Home Health Here
See the Rule for Hospice Here
See the Moratorium FAQ Document Here
Annette Lee

Founder Annette Lee built Provider Insights to give home health and hospice providers peace of mind. She’s had decades of experience at CMS and provided many years of consultancy services—including contracting as a Medicare Administrator with MAC.

She speaks Medicare-ese fluently and knows how to make the most complicated rules make sense for patient-centered providers who don’t have the time to dissect every rule. Agencies that work with Provider Insights can rest assured they’re fully compliant with the regulations that are in place today. And they’ll stay compliant when those regulations change tomorrow.

https://www.providerinsights.com/
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CMS Updates the ABN. What Home Health Agencies Need to Know Now!