Home Health & Hospice Week

HIS and CAHPS data both will make the Hospice Compare cut.

The biggest change in Medicare’s 2017 hospice update final rule doesn’t have a definite implementation date yet, but you need to hop on it anyway.

In its final rule released July 29, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services confirms that it will be launching its Hospice Compare website in spring or summer of 2017.

The website’s debut will usher in a whole new era of publicly reported quality data for hospices. “The really big news” in the rule is the “overall movement to have hospice ‘catch up’ with other provider types in terms of having provider-specific quality data in the public domain,” Theresa Forster with the National Association for Home Care & Hospice tells Eli.

New details: It appears that CMS plans to use both Hospice Item Set-based measures and CAHPS patient survey measures on the new Compare site, notes Judi Lund Person with the National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization.

“We are currently building the infrastructure for the new Hospice Compare site and are evaluating the best method to include both the Hospice Item Set measures and the results of the Hospice CAHPS Survey,” CMS says in response to commenter questions on the proposed rule.

Commenters expressed concerns about the variability of CAHPS data for smaller hospices.

“We plan to report an eight-quarter rolling average for Hospice CAHPS public reporting,” CMS responds. “For the initial report, we may include fewer quarters, but we will build up to eight quarters and continue on an ongoing basis.”

Count on these: CMS plans to include both the hospice rating question and the willingness to recommend question as part of the Hospice CAHPS data reported on Hospice Compare, CMS reveals in the rule.

Do this: Hospices need to start preparing for public reporting yesterday, industry reps urge. “We expect that there will be some anxiety and a learning curve as hospices prepare for hospice public reporting,” Lund Person says.