Home Health & Hospice Week

 March earliest publication date for controversial standard recommendations.

Home health agencies may have to wait longer than expected before the National Quality Forum issues its final recommendations for home health quality standards.
 
NQF members voted on the controversial measures in December. "Ballots are in and are being compiled for presentation to the Board of Directors" at a Feb. 7 meeting, reports NQF spokesperson Phil Dunn.
 
Members had a host of home care industry comments to consider. Fifty-nine organizations submitted comments on the much-disputed proposed standards (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XIII, No. 39, p. 306). "The outcry from the industry likely played a role in this push back," the Connecticut Association for Home Care says in its newsletter.
 
"While we're well on our way, there remain several steps," Dunn acknowledges of the report. The original target date was February, but NQF will issue the report in late March only if voters approved all the proposed measures, Dunn tells Eli.
 
It's more likely the report will take even longer. If voters approved only some measures, NQF "staff and the Steering Committee may be asked to do more work" and publication will be pushed off, Dunn explains. 
 
Editor's Note: The 59 comment letters are online at www.qualityforum.org/home_healthcare_consensus_standards.html.