Home Health & Hospice Week

A few more tweaks planned for HIS tool.

Hospices have been submitting data for these seven Hospice Item Set-derived measures since 2014:

• NQF #1617 Patients Treated with an Opioid
• who are Given a Bowel Regimen;
• NQF #1634 Pain Screening;
• NQF #1637 Pain Assessment;
• NQF #1638 Dyspnea Treatment;
• NQF #1639 Dyspnea Screening;
• NQF #1641 Treatment Preferences;
• NQF #1647 (modified) Beliefs/Values

Addressed (if desired by patient).

Changes: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services does propose to add an item to the HIS tool to refine the pain assessment (#1637) measure, the agency notes in the 2017 hospice payment proposed rule published in the April 28 Federal Register. And it proposes to add “new administrative items for patient record matching and future public reporting of hospice quality data.”