Home Health & Hospice Week
Step Up For TEP Activity In HH, Hospice
Quality measures, Value-Based Purchasing opportunities available. If home health and hospice providers want the feds to listen to them, they’ll need to spend some time searching out avenues to make their voices heard. One way is through Technical Expert Panels. Medicare contractors for Post-Acute Care and Hospice Quality Reporting Program quality measure development, Acumen and Abt Associates Inc., are convening a TEP “to evaluate the measurement sets across the Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility (IRF), Long-Term Care Hospital (LTCH), Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF), Home Health (HH), and Hospice settings, with a focus on identifying measurement gaps, and ensuring measures align with CMS program requirements and goals,” the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services says in a Sept. 13 message to providers. “Acumen and Abt will organize a panel of stakeholders from a broad base of expertise (e.g., patient/caregivers, clinical, policy and program, measure development, technical, etc.) and solicit their input regarding the PAC and Hospice QRP measurement sets and future measure concepts,” CMS explains. “CMS will use this to inform new measure development and maintenance of PAC and Hospice quality measures.” CMS and its contractors will contact TEP members annually, or as needed, for up to five years. Nominations are due Oct. 11. Meanwhile, on the home health side, nominations for the Value-Based Purchasing TEP are due by Sept. 27, CMS reminds providers. (See more details of that TEP in HHHW by AAPC, Vol. XXXII, No. 32.) More information for both panels is at https://mmshub.cms.gov/get-involved/technical-expert-panel/current.
Home Health & Hospice Week
- Oasis:
HHAs Called On The Carpet For Seriously Underreporting Falls
Watch out: Extremely low falls QM figures may become a red flag. Providers self-reporting quality [...] - Quality:
These OASIS-Based Quality Measures May Be Next To Draw Feds’ Ire
Will your data for the OASIS items feeding into these measures hold up? The 11 [...] - Assessment:
Brace For Stepped-Up Scrutiny Of OASIS Reporting
Surveys may become much more focused on OASIS compliance. The HHS Office of Inspector General [...] - Studies & Surveys:
Hospice Reduces Medicare Costs, Even For Dementia Patients, Study Says
Plus: Two more recent studies address health equity issues. Law- and policymakers need to take [...] - Overpayments:
Take Some Steps Now, Some Later For Overpayment Compliance In Light Of 60-Day Rule
Be ready to run with the new regs. What can home health and hospice agencies [...] - Mergers & Acquisitions:
2 Nonprofit Florida Hospices Plan To Join Forces
Plus: Amedisys-UnitedHealth deal clears next hurdle. Empath Health and Trustbridge are beginning the process of [...] - Industry Notes:
Step Up For TEP Activity In HH, Hospice
Quality measures, Value-Based Purchasing opportunities available. If home health and hospice providers want the feds [...] - Industry Notes:
Get Comfortable In Your Assigned VBP Cohort, At Least For The Next Year
If you have questions about the Value-Based Purchasing program, a new question-and-answer document may have [...] - Industry Notes:
Submit Your Provider Relief Fund Report By Sept. 30 Or Pay Back Affected Funds
The COVID-19 public health emergency is getting farther and farther back in the rearview mirror, [...] - Industry Notes:
Recoupments To Hit Hospitals For DRG Payments That Were Supposed To Be Prorated For Home Health DCs
You may notice a chilling effect on hospital discharges to home health, following a new [...] - Industry Notes:
New HHS Antidiscrimination Rule May Encourage Home Health Use
The Department of Health and Human Services is taking aim at discrimination in health care [...]
