There are two methods for counting beneficiaries:
Proportional Method (applies to most hospices)
For each hospice, the count of the number of Medicare beneficiaries counted is the fraction which represents the portion of a patient’s total days of care in all hospices and all years that was spent in this hospice in this cap year (October 1 to September 30)
Streamlined Method
Under the Streamlined Method, when a beneficiary has received care from more than one hospice, each hospice includes in its number of Medicare beneficiaries only that fraction which represents the portion of a patient’s total stay in all hospices that was spent in this hospice in this cap year. The Streamlined method is only available to hospices that previously elected this method.