Question: We've had some questions about our residential hospice. One thought is to report it as a subsidized program for the community and report the year end loss. Others want to treat it like any other health system facility and calculate charity care, losses to public program (such as Medicaid and/or Medicare), etc. Do you know how others report it?
Recommendation: We recommend reporting as charity care, the expenses for patients eligible for financial assistance. Report as Medicaid shortfall the losses due to Medicaid. If you still need to subsidize your hospice program, and you can document a community need for the service, report that loss as community benefit subsidized services. In assessing whether there is a community need, ask: does the hospice provide access to care for patients who otherwise would have difficulty accessing this service? If the program was closed, would access to hospice become a problem in the community?