Home Health & Hospice Week

Alert: Check out 10 new RCD Q&As on PDGM.

With hundreds of more HHAs going under the Review Choice Demonstration soon, understanding how it interacts with PDGM is critical.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services updated its RCD Frequently Asked Questions with 10 new FAQs regarding RCD and the Patient-Driven Groupings Model. See the new questions (#s 90-92 and 105-111) at www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Monitoring-Programs/Medicare-FFS-Compliance-Programs/Review-Choice-Demonstration/Downloads/RCD-FAQs.pdf.

The Review Choice Demonstration review choice selection window is scheduled to resume Jan. 15. It was halted when CMS postponed the RCD implementation date to March after outcry that the combination of the Patient-Driven Groupings Model and RCD would be too much for agencies in the state (see Eli’s HCW, Vol. XXVIII, No. 38).

Texas HHAs must enter their selection via HHH Medicare Administrative Contractor Palmetto GBA’s portal by Feb. 13, and the demo will start March 2, a CMS staffer reminded forum attendees. Palmetto will place HHAs that do not make a choice selection by Feb. 13 in Choice 2: Post payment Review.

Meanwhile, North Carolina and Florida are still slated to begin RCD May 4. And “with the transition to the PDGM, CMS will phase in the inclusion of Low Utilization Payment Adjustments (LUPAs)” within the demo, the RCD webpage points out.

Other home health topics addressed in the forum include:

• HH Compare. Check out your updated quality data on Home Health Compare on Jan. 23. Note that two measures, Emergency Department (ED) Use without Hospital Readmission during the First 30 Days of HH (NQF #2505) and Rehospi­talization during the First 30 Days of HH (NQF #2380), will be gone with the refresh, a CMS staffer pointed out in the forum.

Instead, the measures ED Use without Hospitalization During the First 60 Days of HH (NQF #0173) and Acute Care Hospitalization During the First 60 Days of HH (NQF #0171) will replace them.

• CAHPS. CMS is holding one-day mandatory training for CAHPS vendors on Jan. 31 from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. ET. More information is at https://homehealthcahps.org.
• OASIS Q&As. Watch for the newest OASIS quarterly question-and-answer set to come out Jan. 21. You can find the Q&As at https://qtso.cms.gov/reference-and-manuals/oasis-quarterly-q.