Home Health & Hospice Week

Plus: Watch for 3 new OASIS items on medication list transfers to debut in about a year.

You should plan to get familiar with two new quality measures on sharing patients’ medication lists before they show up on Home Health Compare.

Home health agencies can expect to see the following measures take effect in 2022:

1. Transfer of Health Information to Provider – Post-Acute Care (supported by data from new OASIS items A2121A, A2121B, and A2123); and
2. Transfer of Health Information to Patient – Post-Acute Care (supported by new OASIS items A2121 and A2123).

And the forthcoming OASIS-E document will tell for sure, but HHAs will start collecting data for these new OASIS items that support those measures in just over a year, January 2021:

A2121A: Provision of Current Reconciled Medication List to Subsequent Provider at Discharge. At the time of discharge to another provider, did your agency provide the patient’s current reconciled medication list to the subsequent provider?

0. No – Current reconciled medication list not provided to the subsequent provider
1. Yes – Current reconciled medication list provided to the subsequent provider

A2121B: Provision of Current Reconciled Medication List to Subsequent Provider at Transfer. At the time of transfer to another provider, did your agency provide the patient’s current reconciled medication list to the subsequent provider?

0. No – Current reconciled medication list not provided to the subsequent provider. ◊ Skip to J1800, Any Falls Since SOC/ROC
1. Yes – Current reconciled medication list provided to the subsequent provider

2. NA – The agency was not made aware of this transfer timely ◊ Skip to J1800, Any Falls Since SOC/ROC A2122: Route of Current Reconciled Medication List Transmission. At the time of discharge, did your agency provide the patient’s current reconciled medication list to the patient, family and/or caregiver?

0. No – Current reconciled medication list not provided to the patient, family and/or caregiver
1. Yes – Current reconciled medication list provided to the patient, family and/or caregiver

A2123: Route of Current Reconciled Medication List Transmission. Indicate the route(s) of transmission of the current reconciled medication list to the subsequent provider and/or patient/fami- ly/caregiver. (Leave blank if current reconciled medication list is not provided to subsequent provider or patient.)

A. Electronic Health Record
B. Health Information Exchange Organi­zation
C. Verbal (e.g., in-person, telephone, videocon­ferencing)
D. Paper-Based (e.g., fax, copies, printouts)
E. Other Methods (e.g., texting, emails, CDs).

Note: Medicare’s OASIS contractors Abt Associates and RAND Corp. include the proposed OASIS items and their details in a 149-page report at www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/Post-Acute-Care-Quality-Initiatives/Downloads/Proposed-Specifications-for-HH-QRP-Quality-Measures-and-SPADE.pdf.