Eli's Hospice Insider

New ‘iQIES’ coming soon.

Medicare’s proposed rule for hospice changes in 2020 contains a rebalancing bombshell, but it also includes a number of changes related to the Hospice Quality Reporting Program.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services signals that it continues to work on possible claims-based quality measures, is implementing a new “iQIES” system to replace QIES, and proposes making the CAHPS survey size exemption automatic, according to the rule released April 19.

“Starting with FY 2022 we propose to provide an automatic exemption to any hospice that (1) is an active agency and (2) according to CMS data sources has served less than a total of 50 unique decedents/caregivers in the reference year,” the rule says. “The automatic exemption is good for 1 year and will be reassessed in subsequent years. Hospices with fewer than 50 unique decedents/caregivers in the reference year would not be required to submit an exemption request form.”

Plus: The tool formerly known as “HEART” is still under development, as CMS reported in a recent Special Open Door Forum. The tool will get a new name, however, as it is too easily confused with the Hospice Abstraction Reporting Tool (HART).