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Home Health & Hospice Week

Industry Notes:

National Rollout of Home Health Compare Imminent

Published on Fri Sep 12, 2003

Tenative implementation date next month.

If you weren't in one of the eight Phase I states, get ready to bare your patient outcomes for all the world to see.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is pushing ahead with plans to make all home health agencies' patient outcomes available on its Home Health Compare Web site. Phase I HHAs in Florida, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Mexico, Oregon, South Carolina, Wisconsin and West Virginia have had their outcomes online since April (see  pdf of Eli's HCW, Vol. XII, No. 8, p. 58).

CMS will hold a satellite broadcast on the home health quality initiative Oct. 3 at 1 p.m., trade associations report. The broadcast will cover the HHQI rollout as well as OASIS coding. CMS will post information about the broadcast at www.cms.hhs.gov/quality/hhqi/default.asp.

Oct. 21 is the tentative rollout date, but that date is still subject to change, industry reps note.

Right now CMS is indicating it will give HHAs a preview of their HHQI data as it did with Phase I agencies, says Bob Wardwell with the Visiting Nurse Associations of America. Originally, CMS expected agencies to convert their own OBQI data to HHQI data, according to Wardwell.

"There is enough anxiety about this without generating more by doing it differently than the Phase I," Wardwell tells Eli. HHAs are likely to panic if they miscalculate their data or have trouble running their numbers, he expects. "I hope they follow through on sending preview data to the OASIS-OBQI mailbox."

  • Durable medical equipment suppliers and HHAs may have been too quick to celebrate one code coming off the prospective payment system bundling list. CMS said in a July program memorandum that A4421 (ostomy supply misc) would be coming off the list that sets out codes Medicare won't pay for separately when a patient is under a home health plan of care (see pdf of Eli's HCW, Vol. XII, No. 24, p. 191).

    But that was a mistake, and A4421 will be staying on the list, CMS says in Aug. 29 program memo AB-03-136.

  • Nevada and Alaska don't pass the HHS Office of Inspector General's tests when it comes to Medicaid drug rebates. The OIG says in recent reports that both states' health care administration agencies have failed to establish adequate policies, procedures and internal controls over the rebates.

    In another report, Oklahoma receives a qualified thumbs-up from the OIG on the matter. The Oklahoma Health Care Authority underwent a computer conversion, so the OIG could only verify that the state had established adequate controls over cash receipts relating to the rebates.

  • The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations is taking steps to address legal disclosure concerns relating to its accreditation process.

    The Oakbrook Terrace, IL-based accrediting body unveiled two new options related to the periodic performance review, which requires accredited home care and other providers to conduct a mid-cycle self-assessment. Attorneys and risk managers have expressed concerns about the potential discoverability of PPR information, particularly when it is shared with JCAHO.

    Under the first option, the organization completes the self-assessment but attests that it has been advised not to submit the information to JCAHO. Under the second option, the organization would not conduct the self-assessment but would undergo a modified on-site survey by JCAHO for a fee. Details on the options are at www.jcaho.org/news+room/news+release+archives/ppr_options.htm.

  • Two states have received good home care news lately. Tennessee will begin covering more home care services for Medicaid beneficiaries, according to press reports. Under an agreement between the state and the Tennessee Justice Center, which had filed a lawsuit, the TennCare program will establish a budget-neutral home care program.

    In Louisiana, U.S. District Judge Kurt En-gelhardt has denied a request from the state's Department of Health and Hospitals to modify a legal settlement requiring the state to provide Medicaid personal care attendants, according to press reports. The settlement was made in a case relating to the U.S. Supreme Court's Olmstead decision, which requires states to furnish home care instead of institutional care when possible.

  • Gentiva Health Services Inc. kicked off its use of the scheduling software it has been touting for the past few quarters.

    The software uses a database that includes "caregivers' qualifications and special skills, the hours they are available to work, the geographic regions they cover, their language skills and other critical information," the Melville, NY-based home health giant explains. "Gentiva field administrators will also be able to more rapidly identify and give priority to those caregivers who have demonstrated their repeated ability to staff cases in the past."

    Gentiva is using the software as one of an arsenal of tools for staff recruitment and retention. Other tools include "enhanced" benefits for per-visit and hourly caregivers, career paths, mentoring, educational opportunities and other professional benefits, the company says.

  • VistaCare Inc.'s patient census has exceeded 5,000 for the first time, the for-profit hospice chain has announced. VistaCare reached the 3,000 patient census milestone in April 2002 and the 4,000 patient census milestone in January 2003, the Scottsdale, AZ-based company says.

  • Charity and University hospitals in New Orleans shut their home care and hospice doors Sept. 5, reports the Times-Picayune. Fifteen patients were picked up by other HHAs and hospices, the hospitals said. The patient census had dwindled because the organizations knew they were closing months ahead of time, according to the paper.

  • Home medical equipment company Continental Home Healthcare Ltd. has acquired MK Medical with locations in Cerritos, Bakersfield and Fresno, CA, reports The Daily News of Los Angeles. Glendale-based Continental expects the acquisition of the mainly rehab equipment provider to add $7 million to its revenues annually.

  • A former home health agency owner and his brother face a 20-count felony indictment in federal court. Amjad Khan, president of now-defunct Warren, MI-based American Home Health Care, and Iftakhar Khan, who headed Livonia-based Michigan Rehabilitation and Pain Management, stand accused of Medicare and other fraud, reports The Detroit News.

    Prosecutors charge the Khans with billing Medicare for excessive gifts for physicians, and for marketing staff who gave doctors gifts in return for referrals to the companies. The Khans listed the marketers as clinical supervisors, nurses or billing staff, the paper says.

    Prosecutors also allege the men paid their wives as top executives when the wives really did little or no work for the companies. Finally, outside companies controlled by Amjad Khan submitted false invoices to the two companies, the government said.

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