Eli's Hospice Insider

You can get into the nitty gritty details of the new Hospice Care Index quality measure in a HCI Technical Report from Medicare issued last month. “This report provides descriptive analyses and detailed contextual information about the new HCI quality measure,” the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services says in a message to providers about the report.

Among the highlights: “Most hospices … tend to score between eight to ten points on the HCI, which indicates that the majority do well,” says the report by contractor Abt Associates. “About 15 percent of hospices score seven and below. This score distribution allows the HCI to differentiate between higher-performing hospices and those hospices with room for improvement,” Abt says.

“Nationally, the average HCI score is 8.8, with 37.9 percent of hospices receiving a score of 10,” the report specifies. “In general, HCI scores were higher on average among larger hospices, older hospices, non-profit hospices, and facility-based hospices. Scores were also higher on average among hospices in northern states.”

Plus: “We found a correlation between a higher HCI score and a higher percentage of caregivers reporting that they would recommend the hospice (through the CAHPS^® Hospice Survey),” Abt notes. “This correlation demonstrates that the HCI aligns with caregiver perceptions of hospice quality.”

The 72-page report is at www.cms.gov/files/document/hospice-care-index-hci-technical-reportjuly-2022.pdf.