Federal Updates for Home Health and Hospice
(Oct. 29, 2024) Please see the following home health (HH) and hospice updates from LeadingAge National:
New CAHPS Survey Guidance Released. In October, new hospice Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) survey quality assurance guidelines were released following the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Hospice Wage Index final rule, which updates the survey items as well as the administration protocols. In each chapter of the guidance document, a new section has been added called “New for QAG V11.0,” which outlines any changes made in the survey protocol.
HH Care Compare October 2024 Refresh Live. The October 2024 quarterly refresh for the HH Quality Reporting Program (QRP) is now available on Care Compare. For this refresh, HH Outcome and Assessment Information Set (OASIS) and HH QRP claims-based measures have been updated. The October 2024 refresh also contains an update to the HH Quality of Patient Care Star Ratings. In addition, the October 2024 refresh will remove two claims-based measures from public reporting:
- Acute Care Hospitalization During the First 60 days of Home Health (ACH)
- Emergency Department (ED) Use without Hospitalization During the First 60 Days of Home Health
New Social Needs Confidential Feedback Report and Education Available for HH. On Oct. 15th, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the new Screen Positive for Health-Related Social Needs (HRSN) Indicator Confidential Feedback Report to HH agencies. This report presents summary information for an agency’s patient population on four HRSN data elements: Health Literacy, Need for Interpreter Services, Social Isolation, and Transportation. Results for this initial report are calculated using data from Oct. 1, 2023 – Sept. 30, 2024 and will be updated quarterly based on the most recent 12 months of available data. This report is provider-generated in the Internet Quality Improvement and Evaluation System (iQIES); instructions on how to generate the report are available here. To support providers in accessing and understanding this new report, CMS has released an educational webinar recording and the related webinar slides and transcript. There is also a fact sheet that provides an overview of the Screen Positive for HRSN Indicator Confidential Feedback Report.
CMS Releases Annual Health Equity Confidential Feedback Reports for PAC Providers. On Oct. 15th, CMS updated the two annual post-acute care (PAC) Health Equity Confidential Feedback Reports: the Discharge to Community (DTC) Health Equity Confidential Feedback Report and the Medicare Spending Per Beneficiary (MSPB) Health Equity Confidential Feedback Report. These reports are available to providers in the HH and skilled nursing facility (SNF) settings. The updated Fall 2024 Health Equity Confidential Feedback Reports are based on data from Calendar Year 2022-2023 for HH and from FY 2022-2023 for SNF settings. The Health Equity Confidential Feedback Reports provide insight on DTC and MSPB measure outcome differences across social risk factors. These reports stratify these two PAC QRP measure outcomes by Medicare/Medicaid dual-enrollment status (duals and non-duals) and by patient race/ethnicity (non-White and White patients). This data is meant to provide information to providers about their performance for certain populations who may have been historically disadvantaged. Providers can use the information from these reports to focus their internal quality improvement initiatives aimed at increasing opportunities for all individuals to achieve optimal health outcomes. Earlier in October, CMS also released the new Screen Positive for HRSN Indicator Confidential Feedback Report to HH agencies and anticipates releasing a similar report for SNFs in October 2025.
Contact: Meg Everett, meverett@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8871