Members should be aware of the following updates from LeadingAge National on home health and hospice issues.

Hospice Updates:

CMS Issues FY 2023 Hospice Payment Rate Update Proposed Rule. On March 30^th, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued the Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 Hospice Payment Rate Update proposed rule (CMS-1754-P). CMS has proposed a 2.7 percent hospice increase for FY 2023 and has proposed to have a 5 percent cap on hospice wage index changes. CMS is also looking for feedback on health equity quality measure development. The proposed rule provides routine updates on the development of a patient assessment instrument – the Hospice Outcomes and Patient Evaluation (HOPE) assessment tool – which would contribute to a patient’s plan of care when adopted within the Hospice Quality Reporting Program (HQRP). CMS also proposes an update on potential future quality measures within the HQRP based on HOPE and administrative data including HOPE-based process measures as well as hybrid quality measures that could be based upon multiple sources including HOPE, claims, and other data sources. This rule also proposes an update on the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) Hospice Survey and seeks information on the Health Equity Initiative within the HQRP. The proposed Routine Home Care (days 1-60) rate will increase from $203.40 to $209.14. The Routine Home Care (day 61+) rate will increase from $160.74 to $165.25. LeadingAge National’s full review of the rule is available here.

Next CMS Home Health, Hospice, and DME Open Door Forum. CMS will hold its next Home Health, Hospice, and Durable Medical Equipment (DME) Open Door Forum on Thurs., April 7^th from 2 to 3 p.m. ET. To participate by phone, dial 1-888-455-1397 and enter Reference Conference Passcode 5109694.

CMS Hospice PPS Web Pricer. CMS has released its Hospice Prospective Payment System (PPS) Web Pricer tool for calendar years 2020 to 2022. CMS has been working over the last year to convert all of the downloadable Personal Computer Pricers to web-based applications, meaning providers will not need to download software updates, as it will always be available and updated automatically online. For the best experience, access the Web Pricer through Google Chrome. You may also use Microsoft Edge or Mozilla Firefox, but not Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Important Quarterly Updates on the HQRP. A quarterly informational email for hospice providers on the HQRP was sent by Swingtech. The latest outreach communication can be found on the HQRP Requirements and Best Practices webpage in the Downloads section. If you want to receive Swingtech’s quarterly emails (or update your email), please email QRPHelp@swingtech.com. Be sure to include your facility name and CMS Certification Number (CCN), along with any requested updates.

Home Health Updates:

Home Health CAHPS Preview Reports with Star Ratings Available. Preview Reports are now available with results from the Home Health CAHPS (HHCAHPS) Survey from October 2020 through September 2021 (2020, Q4 through 2021, Q3). These reports present the publicly reported survey results, which also include star ratings for those agencies with data for 40 or more patient surveys in the four-quarter reporting period.

Next CMS Home Health, Hospice, and DME Open Door Forum. CMS will hold its next Home Health, Hospice, and DME Open Door Forum on Thurs., April 7^th from 2 to 3 p.m. ET. To participate by phone, dial 1-888-455-1397 and enter Reference Conference Passcode 5109694.

Home Health iQIES Issue Update. Earlier in March, CMS identified previous issues in the Internet Quality Improvement and Evaluation System (iQIES) affecting home health agency (HHA) Services Provided values that are displayed on the HHA Provider Preview Reports distributed on Feb. 23^rd. The process to collect and maintain the Services Provided information recently moved to iQIES, and the support teams are working to address the issues associated with the move. CMS initially asked providers to review the Services Provided information on the HHA Provider Preview Reports for the April 2022 refresh and contact their Outcome and Assessment Information Set (OASIS) Education Coordinator (OEC) or OASIS Automation Coordinator if inaccuracies are identified. To allow more time to fix the identified issues, CMS decided, for the April 2022 refresh, to publish the same Services Provided data for each HHA that was posted on Care Compare for the January 2022 refresh. CMS is still encouraging providers to review their Services Provided values, but there is not a deadline for this review. If you have questions, please contact the iQIES Help Desk by phone at 800-339-9313 or by email at iQIES@cms.hhs.gov. CMS continues to work to refine and rectify the update process moving forward.

For those experiencing issues locating your agency’s HHA Provider Preview Report, follow the steps outlined below:

New Users

• Only active users with login credentials to iQIES as of the distribution date of the HHA Provider Preview Reports for the April 2022 refresh will have the report in their HHA Provider Preview Report folder.
  • If you are a new user of iQIES and received your iQIES login credentials after the Feb. 23, 2022 distribution of the HHA Provider Preview Reports, please contact the iQIES Help Desk for assistance.
  • Inform the Help Desk staff that you are a new user of iQIES since the HHA Provider Preview Reports for the April 2022 refresh were made available. The iQIES Help Desk team will gather the necessary information from you, including such things as your agency’s CCN, and will then make the report for your agency available to you in the HHA Provider Preview Reports folder in iQIES.
  • Follow the steps below to locate your agency’s report in the HHA Provider Preview Report folder.

Existing Users

• If you were an active user prior to the Feb. 23, 2022 distribution of the HHA Provider Preview Reports but you cannot locate your report, please follow the steps below:
  • Log into iQIES at https://iqies.cms.gov/.
  • Select the My Reports option from the Reports menu.
  • From the My Reports page, locate the HHA Provider Preview Reports folder.
    • NOTE: The folders and reports on the My Reports page are listed in alphabetical order, so users may need to utilize the page forward functionality at the bottom of the webpage to advance to the page where the folder is located. Alternatively, users may change the default number of rows that display on the webpage from 10 to a larger number to view the larger list of items.
  • Select the HHA Provider Preview Reports link to open the folder.
  • To locate the latest HHA Provider Preview Report, select the down arrow adjacent to the Created Date label at the top of the table. This will order the reports in the folder from newest to oldest.
  • Select the report file with the following label: Preview of Home Health Agency Quality Measure Scores To Be Posted on Care Compare (April 2022)_Updated [provider’s CCN will display after the word Updated].
  • Once the report is open, users will notice the Services Provided information displayed beneath their agency’s demographic information at the top of the report.

Contact: Meg Everett, meverett@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8871