Home Health & Hospice Week

Plus: Shorter HH CAHPS survey may be in the works.

Don’t get confused by the Office of Management and Budget’s extension of its approval for the OASIS-D form to November 2024 — OASIS-E is still on track for January 2023 implementation.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services sent providers a message noting the OMB extension (see HCW, Vol. XXX, No. 44). And CMS officials discussed it during the Home Health and Hospice Open Door Forum on Dec. 14, while not answering questions about an OASIS-E implementation date.

OASIS-E’s January 2023 due date was included in the most recent home health final rule (see HCW, Vol. XXX, No. 40-41).

“There have been some questions about this due to the extension of the [COVID-19 Public Health Emergency] and the renewal of the OASIS D, but January 1, 2023 is the implementation date,” the National Association for Home Care & Hospice confirms in its member newsletter.

Other issues raised in the forum include:

• CAHPS survey changes. CMS has finally received approval to test both a web version and a shorter version of the home health CAHPS survey, a CMS staffer said in the forum.

“Thank you so much, thank you so much” one caller told CMS in the forum. “We’ve been begging for a shorter CAHPS survey forever.”

The version that is tested may not be the final one, the CMS speaker cautioned. The agency hopes to pilot test the different modes in the spring.

• CAHPS star rating preview reports. Quality data reporting on Care Compare (the successor to Home Health Compare and Hospice Compare) will resume in January for home health agencies and in February for hospices, a CMS official reiterated in the forum.

HHAs should have their star ratings preview reports as of Dec. 16, a CMS staffer told a caller in the forum.

• Home health quality reporting data. On Jan. 1, you should also be able to look at your quality reporting stats in a new QAO report in your iQIES folder. The report will indicate your OASIS submission figures for October 2020 through September 2021, which CMS uses to determine whether you will have to undergo a 2 percent payment reduction.

Reminder: “We require all HHAs to achieve a quality reporting compliance rate of 90 percent or more,” CMS explains on its Home Health Quality Reporting Requirements webpage.