Home Health & Hospice Week

You may want to double-check your Quality of Patient Care Star Rating in light of the latest trouble.

As Medicare brings its public reporting of quality data out of the COVID-19 deep freeze, issues continue to crop up.

First: As agencies may recall, an iQIES glitch messed up some home health agencies’ “Services Provided” data, and thus CMS is not updating it accordingly. Meanwhile, HHAs told the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in the last Open Door Forum that they were having difficulties getting the problem resolved (see HCW by AAPC, Vol. XXXI, No. 14).

Then: CMS apparently got ahead of itself when it said on April 14 that its new Hospice Quality Reporting Program quality measure, Hospice Visits in Last Days of Life, was endorsed by the National Quality Forum. “CMS removed the announcement and will provide an update as appropriate,” it says in a new message.

Now: The Home Health Quality of Patient Care Star Rating Preview Reports also have a problem, CMS says in an April 27 message to providers. “There are incorrect date ranges included for the Acute Care Hospitalization measure on the Quality of Patient Care Star Rating Preview Report,” the agency acknowledges. “However, all included provider measure scores are accurate,” CMS maintains. “The report should note that the Acute Care Hospitalization claims-based measure reports data from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021.”

Do this: “If you have proof that there are errors in calculating your Quality of Patient Care Star Rating, you may request a review of your rating by submitting that proof. Requests must be submitted by May 20, 2022,” CMS instructs. More details are at www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/HomeHealthQualityInits/Spotlight-and-Announcements.