Home Health & Hospice Week

Crucial info will be in forthcoming IPRs.>

The start date for the Expanded Home Health Value- Based Purchasing payment model is a mere three months away, but many questions remain unanswered.

Some queries, such as whether the model will have a baseline set in 2019 or 2022, will be settled by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in the 2023 home health final rule expected in the next month or so. But answers to other questions will have to wait longer.

For example: “How will home health agencies (HHAs) identify their cohort assignment? When will cohort assignments be available?” an agency asks in CMS’s latest HHVBP Frequently Asked Questions.

“HHAs can identify their cohort assignment through the expanded HHVBP Model performance feedback reports that will be available on iQIES. The quarterly Interim Performance Reports (IPRs) provide feedback to HHAs regarding quality measure performance relative to achievement thresholds and benchmarks, giving competing HHAs the opportunity to assess and track their performance relative to their respective cohort and their own past performance,” CMS explains in Q2002.1. “CMS expects to make the first IPR available in July 2023, which will include cohort assignments,” the agency adds.

That means agencies will go through the first half of their performance year not knowing whether they will be in the large or small-size cohort. The 47-page FAQs document is at https://innovation.cms.gov/media/document/hhvbp-exp-faqs.