Home Health & Hospice Week

Protests against falls measure fell short.

While pressing concerns ranging from new Conditions of Participation to Targeted Probe & Educate medical review to payment reform conceptualization take up your time and attention in the new year, you'll need to prioritize your quality improvement program as well.

In the 2018 Home Health Prospective Payment System final rule, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services finalized three new measures for Home Health Quality Reporting Program inclusion in 2020:

• Changes in Skin Integrity Post-Acute Care: Pressure Ulcer/Injury. This is actually a swap-out of CMS's current pressure ulcer measure, Percent of Residents or Patients With Pressure Ulcers That Are New or Worsened (Short Stay) (National Quality Forum #0678);
• Application of Percent of Residents Experiencing One or More Falls with Major Injury (NQF #0674); and
• Application of Percent of Long-Term Care Hospital Patients with an Admission and Discharge Functional Assessment and a Care Plan That Addresses Function (NQF #2631).

Reminder: The two new and one modified quality measures will join the 27 measures currently adopted for HH QRP, including the four new measures CMS finalized last year for 2018:

• Medicare Spending Per Beneficiary - Post Acute Care HH QRP;
• Discharge to Community - PAC HH QRP;
• Potentially Preventable 30-Day Post-Discharge Readmission Measure for HH QRP; and
• Drug Regimen Review Conducted with Follow-Up for Identified Issues - PAC HH QRP. CMS did eliminate six "topped out" measures from HH QRP for 2018 in last year's rule as well (see Eli's HCW, Vol. XXV, No. 39-40).