CMS Extends Hospice and Home Health Enrollment Freeze for Six Months

Last Thursday, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) extended its temporary nationwide moratorium on Medicare hospice and home health enrollment for six months.  The original freezes began May 13, 2026. Unlike those freezes, the extensions allow enrolled hospices and home health agencies to add practice locations within their existing enrollment.  Existing Medicare enrollments and services remain unaffected.

The moratoria suspend initial Medicare enrollment applications for new hospices and home health agencies, including certain majority-ownership changes requiring new applications.  CMS can extend the moratoria in six-month increments.

CMS said the restriction gives it more time to investigate suspicious billing, strengthen safeguards and block potentially fraudulent operators, protecting Medicare beneficiaries and taxpayer dollars in high-risk provider categories.  According to CMS, the initiative enabled advanced data analytics to identify questionable billing, investigate potential fraud and remove unscrupulous operators from Medicare. 

Although many healthcare organizations support CMS’s anti-fraud efforts, stakeholders say the nationwide pause has hindered legitimate provider expansion and raised concerns about access to care, especially in underserved communities. The pause has blocked some new locations, operational expansion, acquisitions and affiliations. Providers establishing new agencies have faced enrollment barriers even in markets without widespread evidence of fraud.