Home Health & Hospice Week

If the recent changes to Medicare’s Hospice Compare website have left you confused, you have some new resources to help clear things up.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has issued a five-question-and-answer set on the topic at www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/Hospice-Quality-Reporting/Downloads/Hospice-Compare-May-2019-Refresh-Question-and-Answer.pdf and a three-page fact sheet about the changes at www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/Hospice-Quality-Reporting/Downloads/Hospice-Compare-May-2019-Refresh-Fact-Sheet.pdf.

For example: Three data sources now contribute to the zip code search function, CMS explains in the fact sheet — Hospice Item Set (HIS) data, Medicare claims, and U.S. Census Bureau data.

And just as you’re getting used to the new changes that took effect in May, you can also look ahead to more changes coming in the August Hospice Compare refresh.

Remember: In August, CMS plans to start displaying hospices’ data for the three-day Hospice Visits when Death is Imminent measure.

Hospices have until July 1 to peruse their preview reports for both HIS and CAHPS data, CMS says in a message to providers.