Home Health & Hospice Week

Pricer software also addressed in forum.

If you failed to collect and submit CAHPS data this year, you’ll see a 2 percent payment reduction starting Jan. 1. But you can always change that for the following year by taking action starting next month.

The collection cycle for fiscal year 2016 payments begins in April, noted Lori Teichman with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in the March 5 Open Door Forum for home care providers. “It’s never too late to participate,” Teichman told forum attendees.

But be sure you get credit for your CAHPS work. You should “immediately” notify your vendor if you have trouble submitting your monthly survey data to them, because the vendor then fills out a notification report that goes to CMS, Teichman stressed. It’s important that your vendor submit that report, because CMS uses those reports when it is considering whether HHAs have met the HHCAHPS requirements for the annual payment update determination.

CAHPS dates: If you qualify for an exemption in 2016, CMS will make that form available April 1 on the CAHPS website, Teichman added. On April 17, data for the fourth quarter of 2013 is due.

Also on April 17, Home Health Compare will refresh its CAHPS information, using data from the period ending in September 2013. HHAs can preview that new data April 3. Home Health Compare displays agencies’ CAHPS data only once four quarters of data is available, Teichman reminded listeners.

Waiting On PC Pricer Manual

You can download new PC Pricer software from CMS, but not the instructions on how to use it.

Due to a change in how LUPA add-on payments are calculated, CMS had to add several new fields to the claim entry screen of the PC version of the home health pricer program, CMS’s Wil Gehne related in the forum. While CMS has posted the new PC Pricer software on its website, the user manual has not yet updated. Gehne expected CMS to post the revised user manual in the next few weeks, he said. 

Note: A link to the Pricer software is at www.cms.gov/Medicare/Medicare-Fee-for-Service-Payment/PCPricer/HH.html in he“Downloads”section