Home Health & Hospice Week

Watch out: You have a short window to correct the report.

“The expanded HHVBP Model quarterly Interim Performance Reports (IPRs) provide HHAs with information on their measure performance in the expanded Model, based on the 12 most recent months of data available,” the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services explains in a new “Special Feature” VBP newsletter. “The IPR provides feedback to HHAs about performance relative to quality measure achievement thresholds, benchmarks, and improvement thresholds,” it says.

IPRs may look familiar to agencies because CMS has been issuing Pre-Implementation Performance Reports (PIPRs) quarterly since November 2022 (see HHHW by AAPC, Vol. XXXI, No. 42). PIPRs were “a prelude to the first [IPRs],” says SimiTree Senior Clinical Consulting Manager Charlie Breznicky on the consulting firm’s website.

The difference is that the new IPRs will finally contain a full year’s worth of quality data. “The July 2023 IPR will report 12 months of data ending March 31, 2023, for quality measure performance scores on OASIS-based measures and 12 months of data ending December 31, 2022, for the claims-based measures and HHCAHPS Survey-based measures,” CMS explains in the newsletter.

The IPR will also include the following data, CMS says:

1) the HHA’s interim measure performance scores and an interim Total Performance Score (TPS),

2) Improvement, Achievement, and Care Points reflecting the HHA’s performance relative to the performance of other HHAs in their cohort, including the achievement thresholds and benchmarks for the HHA’s cohort,

3) a Total Normalized Composite (TNC) Change Reference tab to assist HHAs in understanding their performance on the individual OASIS items included in the two (2) TNC measures, and

4) measure scorecard information to support HHAs with understanding how each individual measure contributes to their interim TPS.

“Please note, an agency’s final TPS for the CY 2023 performance year will be available in the August 2024 Annual Performance Report (APR),” CMS reminds.

“Using the IPRs, HHAs can assess and track their performance relative to peers in their respective cohort throughout the expanded Model performance year,” CMS offers.

The data “will give a good idea of what you need to improve to earn improvement points,” SimiTree advises.

“It is important to know that they are comparing you to every other agency in your cohort,” notes Melinda Gaboury with Healthcare Provider Solutions in her Monday Minute with Melinda vlog. “They are specifically giving you what range you are in as far as the national percentile ranking, but they are doing that on each of the outcome measures, not just as an overall ranking,” Gaboury specifies.

The data also will help you gauge your VBP impact. “Review your percentile ranking,” SimiTree suggests. “If in the 50th percentile or above, you are likely to earn achievement points if you maintain that score for CY 2023. The higher your percentile ranking, the more points you are likely to earn and the greater likelihood of positive payment adjustment,” it explains.

“You can look at each of the individual measures and determine if you are below or above the 50th percentile,” Gaboury instructs. “If you are in the 51st percentile or higher, you will have a positive result in the calculation of the percentages that will be applied to your payments in 2025.”