Home Health & Hospice Week

Plus: Grab your last chance for free training.

Medicare is taking a bit more time than it originally indicated to decide on changes to your Home

Health Compare Quality of Patient Care star rating.

Reminder: Back in January, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services explained in a special Open Door Forum that it was considering axing the flu vaccination component of the star rating and adding an Emergency Department use factor (see Eli’s HCW, Vol. XXVI, No. 6). In the forum, CMS said it planned to move quickly on the change and home health agencies could see the revision take effect as soon as in their April preview reports.

But in its March 22 Home Health Open Door Forum, a CMS official said it’s still reviewing the

comments HHAs sent in about the changes by Feb. 20. CMS also didn’t schedule a March 17 ODF on the change as it expected in the January forum.

The July 17 refresh will go forward with the current star calculations, and the preview reports for that will go to agencies April 6, the CMS staffer confirmed. Related suppression requests are due by April 22.

Other home health issues raised in the forum include:

• Your chance to attend free in-person training from CMS on the Home Health Quality Reporting Program has almost passed you by. At press time, there were nine spots left for the in-person QRP training in Baltimore May 3 and 4. The training for 250 people will not be posted online later, CMS says.

CMS announced the training session last month (see Eli’s HCW, Vol. XXVI, No. 10). The session will cover OASIS-C2 changes among other topics. Register at www.eventbrite.com/e/in-person-homehealth-quality-reporting-program-qrp-provider-training-registration-31883775230.

• CAHPS. Your latest CAHPS preview reports were posted on the CAHPS website March 24, a CMS official told attendees. The information will go up on Home Health Compare April 12.