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 [...]
