Home Health & Hospice Week
Make This Oct. 5 Deadline
Now’s your chance to look at your performance on the new Hospice and Palliative Care Composite Process Measure – Comprehensive Assessment at Admission (NQF #3235). Hospice preview reports and Hospice CAHPS preview reports have been updated and are now available, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services says in a new message to providers. These two separate reports are available in hospices’ CASPER non-validation reports folders. Reminder: The new measure comes with a streamlining of the seven Hospice Item Set-based measures that comprise it: Treatment Preferences (NQF #1641); Beliefs/Values (NQF #1647); Pain Screening (NQF #1634); Pain Assessment (NQF #1637); Dyspnea Screening (NQF #1639); Dyspnea Treatment (NQF #1638); and Bowel Regimen (NQF #1617). Instead of displaying each of these seven items individually, Hospice Compare will offer them “in an expandable/collapsible format under the composite measure itself,” the 2019 final rule explains (see Eli’s HCW, Vol. XXVII, No. 29). “Hospice providers are encouraged to review their Hospice Item Set (HIS) quality measure results from Quarter 1- 2017 to Quarter 4-2017 and their facility-level CAHPS survey results from Quarter 1, 2016 to Quarter 4, 2017,” CMS says. Providers have until Oct. 5 to review their reports.
Home Health & Hospice Week
- Survey & Certification:
Beware Aide Competency Testing Under Final IGs
Medicare tweaked testing IGs — but not enough. The final Interpretive Guidelines for the Home [...] - Compliance:
Look To These 2 Bright Spots In Final IGs
Aides’ med administration, verbal order clarifications welcome. While there is a lot to be worried [...] - Regulations:
Unchanged IG Sections Pose Major Compliance Risks
Agencies’ have their work cut out for them in avoiding survey deficiencies. Some Interpretive Guideline [...] - Hospice:
CMS Changes The Channel For Future Hospice Compare Additions
Medicare will no longer run new public display of measures through rulemaking. When it comes [...] - Payment:
Post Acute PPS Isn't Going Away
How do readmission payment penalties for HHAs sound? The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission continues to [...] - Industry Note:
Note This Payment Reduction Appeal Change
Get ready for no more paper reconsideration requests. If you think you’re going to be [...] - Industry Note:
Revised OT, PT LCDs Contain This Significant Change
If you’re used to using certain codes for myalgia and post-op infection to justify your [...] - Industry Note:
Make This Oct. 5 Deadline
Now’s your chance to look at your performance on the new Hospice and Palliative Care [...] - Industry Note:
MAC To School Docs On Home Health Duties
If you’re trying to get your referring physicians to toe the line for face-to-face documentation [...] - Industry Note:
Get Your HQRP Bearings With New Education From CMS
You can learn more about the Hospice Quality Reporting Program by using newly posted materials [...] - Industry Note:
Bay Area HHA Owner, Marketer Indicted On Kickback Charges — Plus Physician
A California home health agency marketer and referring physician have been indicted on Medicare fraud [...] - Industry Note:
Medicare Indicates Enthusiasm For Next-Gen ACOs And Their Cost Savings
Don’t be surprised to see Medicare move more strongly toward Accountable Care Organizations. A new [...] - Industry Note:
Guard Your PECOS Data Like You Would Your PHI
HIPAA requires that providers safeguard their patients’ protected health information (PHI), but Medicare wants to [...]
