Home Health & Hospice Week

For example: The column labeled “Your HHA’s Performance Year Measure Value” on the “Improvement” tab pulls in measure values from the equivalent column on the “Achievement” tab, CMS offers. The column shows measure values on the “Achievement” tab but “0.000” on the “Improvement” tab. “This display error occurs for Microsoft Excel users who do not have formulas enabled automatically,” CMS details.

To fix the problem, “CMS removed all dynamic cell references in the report to allow all HHAs to view values regardless of Microsoft Excel settings,” it assured.

Another problem is that on the “Measure Scorecard” tab, the values listed in the “Your HHA’s Weighted Measure Points” column (column F) for the five individual HHCAHPS Survey-based measures (cells F22 through F26) were inadvertently displayed as blank cells, CMS added.

“The revised version ... includes the display of the individual HHCAHPS Survey-based weighted measure points on the Measure Scorecard tab,” CMS told providers.

Providers should understand that the problems are limited to the display only, CMS stressed. “It is important to note that this display error did not affect the calculation of any values in the Preliminary IPR published on July 20, 2023, including the sum of HHCAHPS Survey-based measures (cell F27) and the sum of all measures/interim Total Performance Score (cell F28),” the agency explains.

Due to reissuing the reports, “the deadline to submit a recalculation request for the Preliminary July 2023 IPR is Wednesday, August 16,” CMS says.

In other VBP news, another month brings another educational tool for the model.

“This month’s Strategies for Success highlights strategic practices related to patient and family/caregiver engagement,” CMS says in its July VBP newsletter released on July 28. CMS provides “a briefing card, which follows an SBAR (situation, background, assessment, and recommendation) format, leading to a recommendation on how an HHA can address opportunities for improvement,” it says.

You can find the Strategies for Success Self-Assessment Tool materials and the Briefing Card Compendium on the Expanded HHVBP Model webpage under “Quality Improvement,” CMS directs.

And the CMS Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation has issued its Sixth Annual Report on the Home Health VBP Model.

“The six years of the original HHVBP Model resulted in cumulative Medicare savings of $1.38 billion, a 1.9 percent decline relative to the 41 non-HHVBP states, as well as improvements in quality,” CMMI says. “These impacts were observed during 2021, the fourth and final year for quality-based payment adjustments, as well as in the preceding five years of the original model,” according to a report summary.

The 198-page report is at https://innovation.cms.gov/ data-and-reports/2023/hhvbp-sixth-ann-rpt.