Home Health & Hospice Week

Plus: CMS improves Hospice Compare search function — finally.

You can expect to see your stats for the hospice visits when death is imminent quality measure displayed on Hospice Compare this August — but only part of them.

“The three-day Hospice Visits when Death is Imminent measure will be publicly reported on Hospice Compare in summer 2019, as planned,” the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services says in a message to providers. But “the seven-day Hospice Visits when Death is Imminent measure will not be publicly reported at this time because it did not currently meet readiness standards for public reporting.”

The problems included reliability, validity, and reportability, a CMS official said in the agency’s April 3 Open Door Forum for home care providers, including hospices.

What’s next: “CMS will conduct additional testing on the seven-day measure to determine if changes to the measure specifications and/or the method for displaying the measure are needed,” it says in a newly posted fact sheet on the development. Results of additional testing will “inform the next steps,” the CMS staffer told forum attendees.

Meanwhile, the three-day measure data will go up as planned. Specifically, “we are targeting August 2019 to begin publicly reporting the Hospice Visits when Death is Imminent measure (three-day measure),” a CMS spokesperson tells Eli.

And hospices can go ahead and get a look at both their three- and seven-day data on their CASPER Quality Measure reports. “CASPER QM Reports are intended for providers’ internal use to aid hospices in quality improvement efforts,” CMS says in a newly posted question-and-answer set. “Although the measure will not be publicly displayed at this time, CMS believes that it is important for providers to internally review and be informed by these data, to ensure that they are providing their patients and caregivers the support they need in the patients’ last days of life.”

Hospices won’t find the seven-day data in their Provider Preview Reports, however, because the data won’t be going up on Hospice Compare, the CMS source explained. Preview reports are only “intended for providers to preview their data immediately prior to it being publicly displayed on Hospice Compare,” the Q&As highlight.

Don’t stop reporting: CMS collects the data for the seven-day measure via O5010, O5020, and O5030 on the Hospice Item Set (HIS) V2.00.0, the agency explains in a new fact sheet on the measure pair. While public display of the seven-day measure portion is on indefinite hold, hospices “are still required to complete these items accurately and completely, and submit HIS records to CMS in a timely manner regardless of the decision to not publicly report the measure at this time,” the agency stresses in the fact sheet.

This shouldn’t place any extra burden on hospices “whatsoever,” though, the CMS official assured listeners. That’s because they already have to report those HIS items for the three-day measure that will be publicly reported.

Resources: Links to the two-page fact sheet and the three-page Q&A set are in the “Downloads” box at www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/Hospice-Quality-Reporting/Public-Reporting-Background-and-Announcements.html.

Other hospice topics addressed in the forum include:

Hospice Compare. Hospices finally will see some relief in the Hospice Compare’s website’s search function problems — hopefully.

Since the site went live in August 2017, providers have complained that the location search results were incorrect and/or incomplete (see Eli’s HCW, Vol. XXVI, No. 43).

For the May refresh, CMS has improved the zip code search function, the CMS staffer revealed in the forum. New Core-Based Statistical Area (CBSA) data should supplement the Hospice Item Set and claims data already used and “improve the search function to be more representative of a hospice’s service area,” he assured attendees. CMS will continue to monitor the issue.

Another change: In May, the Compare site also will start displaying information gleaned from Medicare Public Use Files (PUFs). The new info displayed includes average daily census, levels of hospice care provided, medical conditions treated, and locations care is provided, the CMS source said.

Preview reports. CMS posted hospices’ Hospice Compare preview reports in the CASPER system April 1, the CMS staffer said. Each report covers 12 months of HIS data, and is hospices’ chance to correct any incorrect data before it hits the public website.

Watch for: CMS will host a June training event about the reports, the source said. CMS will post details on its Hospice Quality Reporting Program website when available.