Federal Home Health and Hospice Updates
(Sept. 24, 2024) LeadingAge National offers the following federal home health and hospice updates:
COVID Test Kits Are Available for Home Health and Hospice. LeadingAge National has received confirmation that home health and hospice agencies are eligible to request COVID test kits from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). LeadingAge has confirmed with HHS that the program continues at this time and into 2025. Nursing home, assisted living, home health, and hospice providers can request to be added to weekly distributions by emailing TDX@hhs.gov and providing their shipping information. Any requests to increase, decrease, pause, or re-initiate shipping should also be sent to TDX@hhs.gov. HHS states that requests are usually processed within a couple of weeks of being received.
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) multifamily affordable senior housing providers can order free test kits through this portal.
LeadingAge understands how vital this program is for our members. We are grateful that the Administration continues this program and continue to advocate for access to tests, vaccines, and therapeutics for aging services across the continuum.
CMS Adds New Codes to Home Health Consolidated Billing List for Calendar Year (CY) 2025. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a Change Request (CR 13732) to provide an annual update to the list of Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) codes used by Medicare systems to enforce consolidated billing of home health services. These codes will go into effect Jan. 1, 2025. CMS is adding 71 codes to the Home Health Consolidated Billing Non-Routine Supply Code List in this update. Three codes on the previous list have code description changes. There are no changes to therapy coding lists.
New Home Health Value-Based Purchasing (HHVBP) Training Course for CY 2025. CMS released a self-paced, web-based training course to provide an overview of changes to the expanded HHVBP applicable measure set starting in CY 2025. These changes were finalized in the HH CY 2024 Prospective Payment System (PPS) final rule. The course is intended for agency administrators, clinical managers/supervisors, quality managers, and staff development personnel in home health agencies. The 30-minute course can be viewed on demand and includes interactive exercises to help staff understand and apply the content presented. While it is intended that lessons be completed in sequential order, staff may also jump directly to any topic of interest.
Hospice Quality Reporting Program (HQRP) Updates. The HQRP Quarterly Questions and Answers (Q&A) for Q2, 2024 was released on Sept. 16th. This Q&A includes selected questions received by the Hospice Quality Help Desk during the second quarter of 2024 (April 1st to June 30th). This quarter's report includes questions regarding low scores for smaller hospices on the Hospice and Palliative Care Composite Process Measure, data specifications for Hospice Outcomes and Patient Evaluation (HOPE) implementation for software vendors, retrieving previous Hospice Item Set (HIS) threshold reports, the HIS submission process requirements, and claims-based measure update clarifications. Additionally, if you missed the August 2024 HQRP Forum hosted by CMS on Aug. 21st, materials including a recording of the presentation are now available in the Downloads section of the Provider and Stakeholder Engagement page. The Forum provided updates on the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Hospice Final Rule and additional HQRP updates. A recording of the presentation is also available on the official CMS YouTube channel.
Contact: Meg Everett, meverett@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8871